


Mon ange, je te protégerai jusqu'à la fin...

by Alika



Category: Football RPF
Genre: (Not all of them though just a few), (but not from the start), Alternate Universe - Angels & Demons, Alternate Universe - Hospital, Fights, Fluff and Angst, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Violence, War
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-21
Updated: 2017-03-22
Packaged: 2018-07-25 22:24:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7549582
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alika/pseuds/Alika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Angels descending bring from above, echoes of mercy, whispers of love.” –Fanny Crosby</p><p>	Or: When Roman found a bloody and injured man asking for his help in front of his door one night, he never imagined this would put him in the middle of a war between forces he never suspected existed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Ok, so it's the first time I publish one of my fic. English is not my native language and I don't have a beta reader, so if you see any mistakes or weird sentences just tell me I won't bite :) 
> 
> It's rated M, because I don't know how this fic will turn out, and it's archived 'Graphic Depictions Of Violence" because of the fights scene later in the fic.
> 
> I'll try to be regular when I post a new chapter but I can't promise anything because I tend to be very slow to write...
> 
> Anyway, I hope you will like it, because I truly enjoy writing it, and feel free to tell me what you think of it in the comments :)
> 
> Disclaimer: This is a fiction about real people. I do not own the players mentioned and as much as I know none of the things described here ever happened; any resemblance to any actual events are purely coincidental.

Roman watched as Dr Weidenfeller finished the operation by suturing the wound of their patient. In a few months, hopefully, Roman would be allowed to do it under the close watch of his adviser, but for now he was just an intern among the others and had to remain silent and just watch the experienced surgeon. Sometimes it was frustrating as he wanted to be useful but he understood well he still had a lot to learn before eventually be allowed to do the reason why he had started medical school: save people.

When they got out of the operating room, Dr Weidenfeller sent them away to go get some sleep or eat before the next urgency and Roman sighed before making his way to one of the staff room where he knew there were beds. To be honest, he would have love to go eat something as he had not eaten anything since the beginning of his shift at three am this morning, but right now after more than fifteen hours he just longed to lay in a bed and close his eyes. His duty finished in a few hours and he hoped there would not be any urgency until then. 

He was about to fall asleep when he felt someone shake his shoulder lightly, and when he opened his eyes angrily, ready to shout at whoever dared to wake him up, he met one of his best friend’s sorry eyes. Erik seemed clearly upset and seeing his friend like that prevented Roman to yell at him.

“Sorry to wake you up, Roman, I just need someone to talk to,” he mumbled, his eyes falling on his hand.

“Yeah, sure, that’s alright don’t worry,” Roman said, pushing himself against the wall to make place on the bed so that Erik could lie next to him. It was not an easy task as it was a single bed and that both of them were grown up men but they eventually managed, leaving them to stare at the bed base above them. After minutes of silence, Roman turned his head around, “You wanted to talk, so…?”

“It’s about… it’s just that… I don’t know where to start…” Erik sighed, closing his eyes before hiding his face in his hands, clearly trying to restrain his tears.

“Is it about Matze and Jule?” Roman tried, knowing there were only a few subjects who could upset his friend like he was right now, Matthias and Julian being one of them. The love triangle between the three young men was one of the most complicated love stories Roman had ever heard about, and it was one of the most known gossip amongst the interns in the hospital. Everyone had talked about them at least once and wanted to know how it would end up.

“Yes. No. Maybe? I don’t know, I’m lost,” Erik eventually confessed and Roman remained silent, letting time to his friend to talk. “It’s… I’m confused. I know I love Matthias, I always did, he’s lovely, caring and he’s the perfect boyfriend to me and he love me, but there’s Julian and…”

“You love him too,” Roman finished.

“Yeah… well no? I don’t know. I can’t have the both, it would be selfish, but on the other hand, I can’t choose…”

“You should talk to them you know, maybe they could try to help you,” Roman suggested. “Who knows maybe they’ll have a solution?” read, maybe they loved each other too, but Roman was not going to tell him that. He wanted his friend to talk with his lovers, not give him another chance to chicken out again.

“Yeah, I should do that, but I don’t want to seem like a true bastard… we, they… I don’t want to lose any of them,” he murmured.

“You won’t. I actually think it can only do the best if you talk with them.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re surely right; I will talk to them,” his friend decided after a moment of silence. “I’ll leave you to sleep now, thanks Roman. I can always count on you when I need to talk,” he thanked him, hugging tight him before standing up.

“That’s normal, Erik, that’s what friends are here for,” he squeezed his hand before the younger one left the room smiling.

Roman sighed, hoping that things would get better for his friend. He knew Erik since high-school; they had been friends for a rather long time now, nearly ten years, and as far as he knew Erik, there had always been Matthias by his side. They were together for nearly forever and Roman perfectly understood his confusion toward his new feelings toward Julian. He had always thought he would finish his life with Matthias and now, he felt the same way toward Julian. In his place, Roman would be lost too, but if his ability to observe things were right, Matthias and Julian seemed to like each other in this way too. This was messed up but Roman was used to this now as it had been months now that this three beat around the bush without daring to talk about it together.

Without really wanting, Roman’s mind drifted away on his own love life or more his lack of love life. It had been years now since he had someone in his life. Medical school had prevented him from really try to find someone as he had had to study a lot, and even today, it surely would be complicate to find someone outside the hospital. Roman did not want to get involved with someone related to the hospital, it was too complicate and due to duties they might as well not see each other if they were unlucky. Besides, if things turned out badly, they would have to see each other and work together regularly so finding someone at the hospital was not an option for Roman. It might works for some of his fellows, but he preferred to not take the risk. In anyway, Roman was good as he was right now. He was focused on his studies to become a good doctor and surgeon. He did not miss anything for the moment; he had his friends, his family to rely on and his studies to focus on.

Roman eventually fell asleep a few minutes after Erik’s departure, hoping with all he had that he would not be woken up before the end of his duty.

 

 

He should have known. Roman should have known that it had been too good. He had slept for three whole hours and his duty ended in about thirty minutes when his beeper went off, waking him up. He groaned and eventually got up, before making his way to the emergency room where the call came from.

When he arrived there, he found out it was for a young child, about six, which had broken his arm and cut his eyebrow while falling in the stairs. The mother was there and to be honest, Roman just wished she would go out as she was making him stress and her kid too with all of her questions, as if she did not trust him. Unfortunately, Roman could not send her away and he had to stitches the boy up with a worried mom beside him putting more pressure than needed on him. 

To not help it, his adviser came to see how things were going and pressured him a bit more, telling him they had to leave to the scan for the child broken arm and to be sure there was no concussion. 

“Roman,” Dr Weidenfeller called for him when he was about to follow the child to the scan.

“Yes?” he answered, confuse. It was normal for him to go with his patient.

“Go home, your duty is over, someone else will take care of the kid,” he smiled lightly and this was one of the reason Roman liked his adviser. He was one of the only advisers of the hospital to not treat his inters as shit. Surely, Dr Weidenfeller was not as nice as Dr Hummels, but it was nice and Roman enjoyed working with him this month.

“Oh,” he said while checking his watch and his adviser was right, “Thank you, Dr.”

“You’re welcome, now go home,” he ordered and Roman was not going to disobey. He turned around and went back to the staff locker room to get changed from his scrubs to casual clothes. He eventually made his way out of the hospital, saying goodbye to some of his friends or colleague on the way, and soon enough he was behind the steering wheel of his car driving home through the city. 

He could not wait to be home, all he wanted right now was to grab something to eat in the fridge and go to sleep just after. He was dead tired and the only thing which will prevent him from going straight to bed was his gurgling stomach. Glancing in the rear-view mirror he caught his eyes and eventually could understand why his last patient’s mother had been quite stressed about the stitches. He looked like zombie with the dark bag under his eyes and his ruffled hair. He looked half awake and if he had been in the mother’s place he would have been worried too. 

After nearly twenty minutes and a horrible traffic for this hour of the day, Roman eventually parked in front of his building. He quickly grabbed his things and got out of the car, locking it behind him before entering in the building. As if his day could not have been better, there was a paper on the elevators doors indicating it was out of order. He sighed, doing his best to gather up the last energy he had to climb up the six floors to his apartment. 

He took a break at the fourth floor, tiredness making itself known and the last two stairs were as if he tried to climb the Mount Everest. He switched the light on in the corridor when he arrived and gasped to the view it offered him. 

A man was there, sitting in front of his door. His white shirt was nearly red from all the red stains of it, some bigger than the others. 

Blood, it was blood. Blood was everywhere, on his clothes, on his face, in his hair, even on the floor.

Carefully, Roman walked closer to take a better look at the man, and despite his rather long hair covering his face, Roman could see his eyes were closed. Panicking, Roman ran to him, quickly checking if he still had a pulse and if he was breathing, his doctor’s habits getting the upper hand. 

He nearly jumped of surprise when the man opened his eyes when Roman touched his neck to get his pulse. His chocolate eyes observed him for a few seconds before he opened his eyes.

“Help me, please,” the man said and Roman took out his phone ready to call an ambulance when the man’s hand fell on his’ –the one holding the phone-, “please, no, don’t call them, I can’t go to the hospital…” he said out of breath.

“But-but I can’t help you without-”

“No hospital. You are doctor, you can,” the man interrupted him and it startled Roman. How did this man know he was a doctor? It must have been shown on his face because the man added, “don’t ask, just help me, please…”

“Ok…?” Roman said unsure before standing up to open his door. Once done he turned around to help the man on his feet and help him inside.

Roman did not know what he was doing. The man scared him a bit but he was not going to let him die in front of his door and if he could not bring him to the hospital as this man refused to go, he was going to try to treat his injuries here. Roman knew he was taking a big risk by doing this, firstly because he did not knew the man and secondly because if anyone heard about it at the hospital, it could get him into big troubles, but it was the only solution right now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here is the second chapter :) Once again I'm not a native speaker so if you see any mistakes or weirds sentences just tell me :)
> 
> I won't be able to post for the next three weeks as I'll be on holidays, but I will post the third chapter when I come back for sure ;)

Roman pressed gauze against one of the cut on the man’s face and this one winced when the antiseptic touched his flesh. Roman cleaned it up and sighed when he realised once more that it will need stitches to heal properly. It was the second one and he preferred not to think about the one there must be on his chest seeing how much blood there was on his shirt.

“I will have stitches that one up too,” Roman simply said, grabbing the sewing needle on the table and the thread on the table. He had sterilised them as best as he could before with ninety percent alcohol and this will have to do as he did not have the equipment a hospital had. “Ok, grit your teeth.”

And the man did, he remained still the whole process despite, Roman could see it hurt him a lot. This was the second time he stitched him and it was also the second time the man took on himself like that. To be honest, Roman was quite impressed. He himself would not know if he would be able to stay still without any anaesthesia while someone put in stitches on him.

Roman focused on what he was doing and if a few minutes before he had felt as tired as he could ever be, the adrenaline of the situation helped him to withstand it and he felt as awake as he could be. 

He tied a knot so that the thread would not move, and put a dressing on his eyebrow. Once done, he cleaned up the last superficial wounds on the man’s face and took a step back.

“I guess you have more on your body, so you’ll have to take your shirt off,” Roman uttered lightly, unsure about how the stranger would react.

“Ok. Can you help me?” he asked grabbing at the hem of his shirt and Roman did. As he helped him out of his shirt, the young doctor understood well why the stranger had asked for his help to take his shirt off. 

There were bruises everywhere around his torso and ribs alongside with a few scratches. It must be so painful, and even if the man had asked him to not ask any question, Roman truly wanted to know what had happened to him. It looked like the man had been beaten up and Roman had a hard time to not give away to his urge to call the police. How could someone do this to someone else? It was beyond Roman’s understanding. 

“You should really consider to go to the hospital, you might have broken ribs, it could even have pierce your-”

“No. No hospital. I’ll be fine, my ribs aren’t broken,” the stranger interrupted him, lifting his eyes to meet Roman’s.

“How could you know? It could-”

“I said no. Do with what you have here, it will do,” he interrupted him once more and Roman sighed of frustration.

It was frustrating to not be able to take care of his injury properly. Roman hated it, but he could not force this man to go to the hospital and he could not let him die in a corner either.

“I know you said no question, but I feel like you owe me this at least: What is your name?” Roman asked while cleaning up the cuts on the stranger’s chest and arms. At this rhythm he was going to run out of gauze and antiseptic. 

The man stayed silent for a long, really long moment and Roman thought he would never have an answer but eventually the man lifted his eyes from the floor again to look at him. He seemed to have a battle inside his head, wondering if he should answer.

“I guess you can call me Yann,” he eventually croaked as if it burnt him to say it.

“Yann? It’s nice,” Roman said more by politeness than anything else. From the way Yann had told him his name, Roman was not sure this was his real name and he felt hurt in some way. Roman was here, helping him, nursing his wound without asking any questions and this Yann did not even say the truth to the only thing he actually wanted to know and which was a very basic question. “I’m Roman,” he added to good-measure.

“I know,” Yann answered simply and it startled Roman once more, but he did not ask questions. It was not as if he was going to have any answer to them anyway.

Finishing cleaning up the cuts on his chest he turned around to see if the man had any cuts on his back and he gasped of horror when he saw what was there. Two big, deep, parallels wounds stood there, just between his two shoulder blades. It must be the most painful and serious injury he had on his body and Roman asked himself how the man was still conscious with such wound on his back.

“Oh my god,” he let out eventually, not able to stay silent at the sight before him. “You need to go to the hospital, I can’t- I can’t- It will infect, it’s- you-”

“I said no. No hospital. Clean it up, no stitches, it will heal,” Yann said coldly, and Roman knew it was because he had suggested going to the hospital once again.

“But I can’t let you like that! I can’t let you do that! Even with stitches it won’t heal properly with what I have here!” he did his best to not panic.

“It will. Now just clean it up,” Yann remained calm, and Roman wondered how he did. Roman could not stay calm to the sight of the wounds before him. “I’ve been through worse, trust me, it will be al-right. Don’t stitch it up. Please,” he added more nicely, turning around and his face was proving to Roman Yann was telling the truth. 

“But it will need stitches to have at least a minimal chance to heal properly-”

“Just trust me,” Yann said showing him his back again, and Roman wanted to remember him, he was the doctor here but stayed silent instead. Tomorrow, when the man will be out of his mind because of the infected wounds, Roman would bring him to the hospital, whether he wants it or not.

The young doctor cleaned the wounds up, and put dressing above them in the hope to protect them but he knew it would not be enough. Sighing once again, he cleaned up the others minor cuts.

“Is there any more cuts on your legs I should take care of?” he asked and when Yann shook his head no, Roman felt relieved.

He applied balm on his bruises and felt sorry whenever he had to press a bit more and the man winced of pain. From his work at the hospital, Roman had seen a lot of things. He had assisted to surgeries, stitched and bandaged all kind of injury, took care of many problems and diseases without even flinching, but seeing Yann’s injury tonight made him feel nauseous. It might be because of the circumstances he was in, because he was not in the hospital, because of Yann’s refusal to go to the hospital. He did not know himself. All he knew was that it made him feel nauseous.

“I’m done,” Roman eventually said, taking a step back and taking off the latex gloves covering his hand. “You can stay on my couch to-night if you want,” he added and even if the man frightened him with all of mystery, Roman could not let him go like that.

“Thank you,” Yann uttered formally, “For taking care of my wounds, and for your hospitality,” he added after his eyes had found Roman’s. They both stayed silent for a moment, staring at each other’s eyes. Roman could not stop himself to look at them, there was some-thing in them, something mysterious, the answers to every question he had but could not ask. Unfortunately, these answers where hid behind something else, something Roman could not decipher.

“I’ll get you a blanket and some clothes to sleep in,” Roman only answered managing to break eyes contact with him, before turning around and went to his room. He grabbed a warm blanket in one of his closet and grabbed a t-shirt and short that should fit Yann –Roman was actually taller than him so his clothes should fit him anyway.

Coming back in his living room, the young doctor put the blanket on the couch and handed the clothes to his guest.

“The bathroom is over there,” he indicated with a movement of his arm in the direction of said bathroom and he watched him as the man retreated in there.

Roman sighed one more time, and closed his eyes, thinking about everything that had happened tonight. He got pulled out of his thoughts by his growling stomach and he quickly went to his kitchen and grabbed a yogurt from the fridge alongside with the bottle of juice. He poured himself a glass of it and drank it in one go before opening his yogurt and eating it slowly. It felt good to finally eat something. It had been a day now since he last ate as he did not have time during his shift at the hospital.

The bathroom door opened again a few minutes later while Roman was putting his yogurt away, and Yann came out of the room wearing Roman’s clothes. They fitted perfectly. He looked around certainly looking for him and he smiled lightly when he spotted him in the kitchen, before making his way to him.

“Hey, uh, uhm, could you- could you bandage my hand?” he asked unsure, and this was unlike his previous behaviour that it caught the young doctor off guard. Yann showed him the said hand and he understood why he was asking him such a thing. There were many bruises, just above every knuckles and it must hurt a lot whenever he moved his fingers.

“Yeah, sure, come,” Roman answered leading him back in the living room where all his medical equipment was. He cleaned the cut on his hand once more, feeling sorry whenever Yann winced because of the antiseptic, before slowly bandaging his hand. “Here, I’m done,” he murmured slightly pushing away the man’s hand. “I think you should go to sleep now. Do you need anything else?”

“No, thank you,” Yann nodded a small smile stretching his lips. 

Turning around, Roman made his way to his room and when he was about to close the door behind him he heard the other one wishing him a good night.

“You too,” he murmured back, closing the door and quickly un-dressing before slumping on his bed.

What had happened? He wondered. Who was this Yann? And how did he know so many things about him? It afraid him to know Yann knew him and Roman did not know anything about him. The guy could be a murderer after all! Who knew? 

But on the other hand, there was something about Yann which reassured him, something in his look, his behaviour, which told him he had nothing to fear with the man. 

It was confusing and Roman did not know what to do now. He hoped he would be able to convince Yann to go to the hospital in the morning; the fever due to his surely infected wounds would certainly help him, but deep down, the young doctor knew it would not be an easy task. Yann seemed so against the idea of hospital that it would take a hell lot of time to eventually bring him there.

Here was another question he was asking himself, why did Yann refused to go to the hospital? It could only help him! But maybe Yann was a dangerous criminal wanted by the police? Once again, who knew?

His worried mind kept over thinking for a few more minutes before eventually the adrenaline of what had happened disappeared and the sleep kicked in, making him doze off, before eventually fall in a more than needed sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, feel free to give me your opinion on it, I would love it :) Whether it be positive or negative as long as it's constructive :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I said chapter 3 would be posted a week earlier, but... This past weeks had been really difficult for me. I don't want to sound needy or anything like that, and I know I write for myself (I have many works I don't want to share because they are personal), but I think that I wouldn't have posted this fic at all if I didn't want to share it with you and get some feedback on it... I know this ship is not really known, but I know there are people reading so :/ Even something negative as long as it's constructive would be nice, because right now it feels as if you all regretted clicking on the link...  
> I think this chapter and chapter 4 will decide if i delete it from here or not.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy reading this chapter, it's not my favorite, but it is an important one for the following of the story :)

Roman woke up to a clattering sound coming from outside his bedroom, in his flat. It startled him and for a second he was afraid of what it was before remembering the previous night. Yann. It must be Yann. He got up, grabbing a short and a t-shirt and pulling them on while on the way to his room door before going out. 

He found Yann in the kitchen, looking around for something to clean up the mess on the floor. He must have dropped a glass of water if the water and the broken glass were of any clue. 

“Leave it, I’ll take care of it,” Roman said and the other man nearly started as he surely had not hear him coming.

“I’m the one who did this, so it’s me who should clean,” Yann only answered before bending down once he found some paper towel and started to wipe off the shattered pieces of glass, his long hair hiding his face. He winced every time he had to move his shoulders surely from the two big wound between his shoulder blades.

“Nonsense,” Roman sighed while taking the paper towel away from his hand, “You can’t strain yourself with your injuries. Go back to the couch, while I clean it, ok? I’ll get you something to drink afterward.”

The other man stared at him for a few seconds, weighing up the pros and cons before opening his lips again, “I don’t want to bother you-”

“You aren’t. Now go rest,” the young doctor ordered and his ‘patient’ complied, making his way slowly to the couch where he had spent the night. Roman stared at him a few second, watching as the stranger slumped on his couch and laid on his side, certainly not able to stay on his back, before cleaning up the mess at his feet. 

Once done, he went to make himself some coffee when he turned around and asked:

“Do you want coffee? Tea? or anything else?”

The answer came shortly after from a muffling voice: “No, water will be fine thanks.”

So he filled a glass of water and did as promised, bringing it to the man, putting it on the coffee table. Roman sat on the small armchair next to his couch and put on the TV on a news channel, slowly starting to sip his coffee in silence. From time to time he dared to take a look at Yann, his mind full of the same questions he could not ask. He so wanted to have these answers, to know the truth but Yann would not do so. Roman did not even know if ‘Yann’ was his real name. He hoped he had not lied on that, it would not be fair to him seeing how he had helped him. Roman risked his career by accepting to take care of his wounds. He should have taken him to a hospital, not stitched him up with a sewing needle and thread. Sure it was pretty much the same as medical ones, but as a doctor he should not have done that, not in these conditions. He should have taken Yann to the hospital. It surprised him to see Yann did not seem to have any fever because of infection. The wounds on his back were deep and needed stitches more than anything, but Yann had been so against it and he could not have done it against his will.

Sighing, he put down his mug on the table in front of him and leaned back in the small armchair, closing his eyes in the process, eventually bringing his knees to his chest uncomfortably. Yesterday had been a long and hard day and Roman thankful he was not meant to go back to the hospital until tomorrow afternoon for an eight hour duty. The day prior, his duty had lasted nearly eighteen hours, and there had been a lot of urgencies. Roman loved working in the Emergency department, he wanted to become a trauma surgeon so naturally he learnt a lot there, but it was hard to keep pace with everything that happened there some days.

Sighing once more, he started to doze off a bit despite the coffee he had just drunk and the uncomfortable position he was in. Even though he had slept for a whole night, Roman was still feeling tired; it was the same tiredness that had taken places in his body for months now. He truly loved his work, it was what he had always wanted to do and now that he was doing it –or at least was on his way to do it- he must say he was happy and proud to be where he was, but he could not diminish the fact it was hard and really tiring. It had been months now that there was dark circle under his eyes –even darker when it reached the end of his duties- and despite spending all his off-days sleeping; they were always there alongside with the fatigue. Roman had known how tiring this would be when he had started, but he had never imagined it would be that tiring.

He could hear Yann fidgeting on the couch, desperately trying to find a good position, and Roman felt sorry for him, knowing how uncomfortable his rather small couch could be. Roman might already be a doctor but his studies were not over yet and so his salary was not that high yet.

Looking around, his flat could easily be described as small but it was enough for one person. There was a bedroom, a bathroom, a kitchen and a living room. Just the necessary, so when he had moved in here it had seemed more than correct to him. Today, he could admit a slightly bigger flat would be nice, but it would not be for now.

Opening his eyes again, he stared at the ceiling for a few second –spotting a weird stain there, remembering him it was about time to do the housework- before his eyes landed on the man beside him when this one moved again, a small groan escaping his rather plain lips.

Without really noticing it, his eyes stayed on him, staring at his rather handsome feature. Yann had long –jaw length- brown hair alongside with almond-shaped chocolate eyes when they were open. His lips were plain, his nose straight, his skin was somewhat tanned and despite Yann being shaved, Roman could see small stubble making its way on his strong and slightly square jaws. Altogether, Roman had to admit the man was handsome, no scratch that, Yann was hot. 

Unconsciously, Roman had started to bite on lips, his more than non-existent love/sex life making its presence feel. When he noticed what he was doing, the young doctor looked away, blushing slightly, and prayed that the other one would not wake up right now to see him like that or worse that he had caught him staring.

Roman knew he was bisexual for a rather long time now, he had understood it at the age of fifteen actually and despite having struggled a bit to accept it in the beginning, he now had made peace with it and fully enjoyed it. Fortunately, his parents had taken the news rather well when he came out to them, and Roman remembered of this day as the most fearful one of his life up until now. His family was catholic and the religion was important to them. The young man had been afraid to tell them, afraid that they would reject him but it had been nothing like that. Surely, his father had stayed quiet a moment and his mother had taken him in her arms, crying, but they quickly assured him it was okay, that he will always remain their son and they will always love him. Even if he knew that deep down they hoped he would settle down with a woman, Roman felt grateful to have such supportive and loving parents. 

He was taken out of his thought by Yann sitting up and grabbing the glass on the table and drinking a bit of its content, not uttering a word to him before lying down again. 

After this, the day went rather smoothly. Yann slept all day, only waking up to drink water, and Roman spent the day crashing on his armchair, dozing off from time to time, checking on Yann every two hours, to see if he had any fevers. They did not really talk and it was not as if, Roman wanted to anyway, the tiredness taking over.

It was not until the day after that they talked. Roman was taking his breakfast when Yann entered in the kitchen and sat in front of him at the table. Roman offered him something to eat, but as always, Yann refused and only asked for water –which was another question Roman had, how was he not hungry yet?

“I will have to go to work in about twenty minutes or so,” Roman eventually said after a long moment of silence. “I’ll be back by eleven p.m., I think.”

“Ok,” Yann nodded, “I will be gone by then.”

“You don’t have to; your injuries are not healed yet.”

“I have to go, I have important things to do,” Yann explained.

“Ok,” Roman nodded just like Yann had done before, “you can come back after if you want though,” and the young doctor did not even know why he wanted the stranger to stay but he felt bad about letting him go. 

“I don’t- I don’t think it would be a good idea,” Yann uttered, pushing a strand of hair back behind his ear.

“Why not? Beside, the stitches will have to be taken off, so you’ll need to come back.”

Yann did not answered anything to that, he only sipped his water, his eyes looking away from the young doctor. On one side, Roman wanted to help him, from the moment he had seen his in front of his door with blood everywhere, Roman knew he had to help him, that he could not leave him like that, but on the other side, there was something in Yann’s demeanour that frightened Roman and wanted him to leave. The mystery around Yann, all the questions Roman could not ask, the origin of all his wounds, why he refused to go to the hospital, all of that frightened him.

“Thank you,” the man finally uttered before adding, “for everything you’ve done to help me. I know you’re confused about all that happened and you have a lot of questions, but I can’t tell you anything. It would be too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous? For you or for me?” Roman asked confuse.

Yann sighed, rubbing his eyes in the palm of his hands before lifting his eyes up to meet his’. “For the both of us,” he eventually gave in after a moment of silent, where they had just stared at each other’s eyes. “I’m sorry I can’t tell you more.”

“Why? What happened to you? Why is it too dangerous for me to know how you’ve got all these injuries? I’m the one who took care of them, I think you owe me the truth!” the doctor exploded standing up and facing him, the only thing between them being the small kitchen table.

“You’ve just said it! It’s too dangerous! I can’t, I’m sorry,” he nearly yelled back, his face truly looking sorry before he buried it in his hands again.

Silence filled the room for a moment, none of them speaking, Yann still with his face in his hands and Roman looking around for something to calm him down.

“It isn’t fair,” Roman eventually sighed, slumping down again on the chair next to him.

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“You already said that, Yann,” he mumbled, not caring if Yann heard him or not. “Is it even your name?”

“What?” he lifted his head up again, his long hair moving around his face in the process before his eyes landed in Roman’s again.

“Is… Is ‘Yann’ your true name, or did you lie on that?” Roman asked again and he hoped to get a true answer on that.

“Of course it is, why would you think it isn’t?”

“I don’t know, maybe if you weren’t so mysterious I wouldn’t question your sincerity on what you accept to tell me,” Roman answered rather coldly.

“You know I can’t answer all your questions, but you have to believe me that everything I can tell you is the truth. I won’t lie to you, I can’t and don’t want to.”

“Ok,” he sighed before checking the time on his phone. “I have to go now if I don’t want to be late. Please, come back when your ‘things’ are done I would like to check on your injuries when I come back, ok?”

“Ok,” Yann nodded and Roman left shortly after with the felling Yann would not be there when he will be back tonight.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I know it's been a long time, but I took a huge break from writing anything in September because of school and I'm not regretting it at all as it helped me to figure out how this story will continue :D  
> I hope you'll enjoy this chapter, and as always I'd love to have your opinion on it (whether it be by leaving kudos or comments :) )  
> Much of love,  
> Alika <3

Roman was sitting at the cafeteria, eating his lunch as quickly as possible, having to assist to an operation in about half an hour. Erik was in front of him, talking cheerfully about the previous evening. He had had a date night with Matthias and seeing how happy Erik seemed, it must have gone really well.

“Did you talk about Julian?” Roman eventually asked, interrupting his friend’s ramble about ‘how perfect his boyfriend was’ which had started about five minutes ago. Erik’s smile dropped and he looked away, giving his answer to Roman without even having to utter it. “You didn’t? Erik! You said you would! You need to talk about it; it will only intoxicate your relationship if you don’t speak together about such important matters.”

“I know, but we talk a lot you know, we tell each other everything, we’re doing good like that, I-I don’t want to… spoil everything,” Erik admitted after a moment of silence, taking a bit of his sandwich and chewing on it. His eyes were still avoiding his’, as if he was ashamed of himself –for not having done what Roman had advised him, and certainly for having fallen in love with another man than his boyfriend-, and it made Roman sigh. He knew his friend, and he also knew that this one hated himself for the feeling he had for Julian. He certainly felt as if he betrayed Matthias in a way. Seeing his friends like that saddened Roman as he wanted him to be happy, just as he used to be.

“You won’t. Matze and you are together since high-school, Erik, this won’t spoil everything. Matze and you need to talk about it and figure what’s the best. It would be even better if you two spoke with Julian too,” he told him, trying to reassure him, but deep down, Roman wondered where all this came from. He certainly was the last person who could give advices about relationship seeing his love life, or lack of it, but Erik and Matthias were his friends and he wanted to help them. He hoped what he had just told Erik would be true, because after all, he did not really know how Matthias would react to the announcement of his boyfriend being in love with someone else as well as with him, but Roman was almost certain the younger one had feeling for Julian too. Almost, and that was why he was praying every gods he knew to not be wrong.

“You’re sure?” his friend asked him unsure, his deep hazel-green eyes stared at him and the face he pulled made him seem younger than he actually was.

“Yes, I’m sure.” Well he hoped he was.

After that they finished eating in silence both deep in their thoughts and soon enough, Roman found himself washing his hands and forearms, readying himself to assist to an operation. Once he had soaped his hands up to the elbows and rubbed his skin for several minutes, he rinsed them before entering the operating room. A nurse helped him to put on gloves and he took place in a side of the room, waiting for the surgeon to come in and start the operation.

The patient was a young woman who had broken her femur badly this morning while getting down the stairs of her university. Roman had been there when she had arrived, and seeing her crying loudly, pressing the oxygen mask against her face in the hope it would get better, had pained him a bit. He always felt bad when he saw people cry but it was part of his job so usually he did his best to stay calm in those moments. She seemed rather young, eighteen or nineteen years old and what had pained him even more was to see she was alone. No-one had been there to hold her hand, to reassure her, so Roman had done it. Normally, it was not the procedure, but he had not left her side until she had been under tranquilliser, and then he had only left her to go to eat. Charlotte -it was her name- had explained him she was from France and was on an exchange program. She had arrived only a week and a half ago and it explained why no one had been there for her as she certainly did not have many friends yet.

Roman could not imagine being in her place. Being in another country which did not speak his native language for barely a week and having to undergo a surgery all alone –and as a physician, he knew femur took at least three months to heal properly, not including the possible problems in the physiotherapy.

Dr Weidenfeller eventually arrived and the nurse helped him to finish preparing himself. Shortly after, the operation began and Roman focused on what was happening in front of him, taking as many mental notes as possible on what was doing his adviser. One day, Roman would be the one doing it, and despite he could not wait for this day, he knew he had to spend a few more years learning how to do it.

They were three interns this time to watch the operation. Roman recognised them even though he never really talked to them. Competition amongst the interns was well known and some were ready to do anything only if it meant their advisers would prefer them -which was ridiculous seeing their advisers were their teachers, and consequently, always had to remain impartial. Roman hated it. He hated the fact the person standing next to him could do anything to see them fail for him to succeed. He hated this aspect of his job, for him they should help each other rather than stab each other in the back, but sadly, his opinion was not everyone else’s.

 

The operation had gone well and Charlotte was now quietly sleeping and waking up in PACU. Roman had gone back to the emergency room and was now taking care of patients with small injuries. 

So far he had bandaged a kid’s thumb who had broken it playing football with his friends at school, stitched an elder man’s forehead after this one had tripped over a pavement and dealt with a screaming baby who only was teething –this last one was the cause of his massive headache. His work shift ended in about three hours and those three hours promised to be very tiring seeing how crowded the waiting room was. This also meant he would not be able to get dinner, and seeing how little he ate at lunch, the knot hunger created will soon become more than bothering.

His next patient was a teenage girl who had dislocated her shoulder at training –she was playing rugby and when she told him, Roman could not contain his surprise seeing this was rather uncommon. She was alone as her parents were not here yet and she seemed to be in great pain. They had to sedate her to be able to put back the bone in its place. Unfortunately for her, it did not really work and Roman had had to call a nurse to help her stay put –and if Roman was honest to himself, his physical tiredness added to his hunger were not really helping. It eventually worked and the young physician immediately felt guilty when he saw her face full of tears, knowing it was partly his fault. 

This was one of the major problems he had with his job. He could not support the idea his patient were suffering because of him, even if sometime there was no other way. 

He took care of a few other patients before his shift ended –including a very drunk and very annoying man by the end, which he gladly left for the night team to take care of. Roman always tried his best not to judge his patients, but in his state and seeing how rude and disrespectful this young man was –he called nurses of names he would never ever think of and when Roman had asked him rather nicely to calm down, this one had tried to punch him!-, the physician could not help but think this one definitely was a moron –and this was nice considering the man’s rudeness. 

After having said goodbye and wished good luck to his co-worker, he slowly made his way toward the locker room and sat on one of the bench here, closing his eyes and relaxing as best as he could. This had been a tiring day.

He stayed like that a few minutes, enjoying the quietness of the room compared to the emergency room, but as all thing eventually come to an end, his stomach growled loudly and Roman quickly opened his locker to grab the small chocolate bar he was keeping there. This was the first thing he ate in more than ten hours and to say the least, it felt very like heaven. If he had not been that hungry, he would have felt bad by how fast he gobbled it.

Roman changed back into his casual clothes, and then quickly made his way to the neonatal department of the hospital where Erik worked –Roman felt sorry for him as he knew his friend was still here for at least five hours while he was heading home. He quickly said him goodbye, murmuring in his ear to talk with Matthias, and then went to the other side of the hospital to the ICU where he knew Charlotte had been transferred not along ago. He asked the nurses about her and once he had quickly checked she was alright and sleeping peacefully, he finally left the hospital. 

Stepping outside in the cold air was something common people usually hated –particularly in winter-, but Roman actually enjoyed it. It usually meant his shift was over and he was going back home so he indeed liked it. It contrasted with the heat in the crowded emergency room in what Roman could only describe as a pleasurable way.

The journey back to his flat was rather quick and uneventful. All he could think about was whether or not Yann would be there or not. Deep inside he knew there were no chances for the man to be back, but he could not help but hope for him to be back, at least just to let Roman check on his injuries.

Yann’s words resonated in his head. This morning he had said the truth was ‘too dangerous’. What was too dangerous? Was Yann part of some secret criminal gang? Or worse, one of their prey? This could explain his injuries, but it certainly was not reassuring Roman at all. What if the man –men?- who had done that to Yann decided to beat him up too for helping him? Roman should have known better than not call an ambulance that night where he found him. He should not have done what he had done.

Parking his car in front of his building, Roman looked up to the sixth floor to see if any lights were on –his flat was on the street side- and sighed when he saw none. It could only mean two things, either Yann was asleep and had turned lights off, or Yann was not back at all, which was more likely to occur. Or, the man –men?- who had hurt Yann was –were?- waiting in the dark for him to come home and hurt him too, he thought fearfully.

The young physician got out of his car and quickly climbed up the sixth stairs as the elevator was still not functioning. Well, as quickly as he was able in his condition. He hoped they will fix the elevator soon as he will not be able to climb up six stairs every night, even less after long shifts. Last time such thing had happened –less than a year and a half ago- it had taken then five –five!- weeks to fix it. Five weeks of climbing six stairs every night after his duties at the hospital. Roman nearly moved. The reality was that landlords did not really care about this neighbourhood. They took the money at the end of the months without really caring about the people living there and the state of the building. Roman remembered well how he had had to help the elder woman living on the third floor to get up or down the stairs as she was too old to do it by herself. 

He eventually got in front of his door and taking a deep breath he opened it, ready for any scenarios, only to find nothing. No-one was here, it was totally calm and nothing had changed since this morning, except for a note on the table.

'As you might suppose, I won’t come back. It’s too risky. Anyway, take care of yourself Roman, and thank you for everything you’ve done, I’ll never forget it. Yann.'

For a moment, Roman was disturbed because of the handwriting which was so neat and nearly calligraphic –so different from the ones he was used to see every day at the hospital-, but then he thought about the words and crumpled the paper in his hand, before closing his eyes. He should have known Yann would not come back. 

In the end, the mysterious man had left as quickly as he came in, without giving him any explanation. Roman could not do anything about that, so he choose not to think about it too much –even though it was easier said than done-, and quickly went to bed after having ate a small thing from the fridge. The next second his head landed on the pillow, he was already dozing off in a much needed sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So here is chapter 5, I hope you'll like it, I had a lot of fun writing it and I think the following ones will be as enjoyable to write seeing what I have planned :)  
> Thank you for your comments and kudos, it means a lot to me :)  
> \+ I would like to thank Blue_Night for being the beta of this story, she do help me a lot, and moreover she an awesome writer so if you don't know her yet, go read her story !  
> Much of love,  
> Alika <3

Roman slept long the following morning, enjoying the fact that his shift was starting at half past four p.m. As happy as he could be about this, it meant he was finishing at seven a.m. the following morning and he hated night shifts.

He eventually woke up when his phone started ringing by noon. Growling, he grabbed it by feel, his eyes not adjusted to the light yet –he had forgotten to close his curtain last night - and answered without checking who it was.

“M’hello?” he grumbled while rubbing his eyes with his free hand.

“Roman! Did I wake you up?” the caring voice of his mother answered after a few second.

“Kind of’, but it’s okay, ma’,” he said just before a loud yawn left his lips which only made her giggle.

“I’m sorry I just thought you would be awake by now,” she started and she had a point there as he was usually a morning person, “Anyway, it’s been a long time since we last talked, so how’re you doing?”

“Good. I’m doing pretty well. I’m a bit tired but it’s normal,” he said quickly before another loud yawn escaped his mouth. “And you?”

“I’m okay, don’t worry about me, honey,” she answered, and Roman could perfectly hear her smiling on the other side. “I wanted to talk to you about your birthday, it’s this weekend and your father and I were wondering if you’d come home for it?”

“Yeah, I’ll probably do that; I have to see my schedule though…”

And the rest of the conversation went on as simply as it had started. They talked about her life a bit; she was explaining how his father and she were planning to go on a trip in Norway in February for their thirty years of marriage. Soon enough they drifted on the subject of his father’s health issue and how he did not trust the doctors enough to follow their recommendation – which tended to irritate Roman as he was a doctor himself and did not understand his father’s reluctance to be cured. For Roman, it seemed only logical for the doctors to give their best advice, so it could only help his father to get better. His mother told him a little bit about his younger brother and that he was doing really well at the university, when the subject was starting to become a bit more delicate –Roman knew she thought the same as he but did not want to upset his father.

“It was so good to talk to you Roman, I miss you a lot, now that your brother and you have left the house, it feels so empty, I miss you both so much,” she eventually said when the time for them to hang up came.

“I miss you too, ma’,” he uttered with a lump in his throat. Sometimes, he felt guilty for leaving her alone back home. When his brother and he had been young, she had stopped working to take care of them full-time, dedicating her life to them, loving them and taking as much care of them as it was humanly possible, and when they had both left the house, it had been too late for her to start working again –very few hirers to none would have taken someone so close to retirement who had not worked in over twenty years. “I promise to try to come over this week-end.”

“It would be marvellous, honey, I’m looking forward to it.” Roman could literally hear her smile again, and it only made him smile too. He loved making his mother happy, just as every child in the world did.

They eventually hang up after saying goodbye, and only then Roman realized they had been talking for more than three hours and that he definitely had to get up by now if he did not want to be late. He took a quick breakfast before running towards the bathroom, taking a shower in the same hasty pace as he had gobbled his food down a few minutes prior. He didn't waste any time with drying himself once his shower was done and quickly brushed his teeth before getting dressed. After hastily checking the time on his phone he quickly did his maths and realized that there was no time left for him for merely trying to comb his hair. He put on his shoes, grabbed his coat as well as a scarf and a beanie before getting out.

The drive to the hospital was rather uneventful, better than he had expected knowing the rush hours were starting at this time – which also meant rush hours in the emergency, so Roman was preparing himself mentally for crying babies, grumpy elderly person and overbooked or overstressed mothers who just wanted their kids to be fine.

“Roman!” someone called his name a few second after he had stepped inside the hall, on his way to the elevators. He turned around only to find Doctor Weidenfeller a few meters behind him, a stack of files in his hands, making his way toward him.

“Yes, sir,” the younger doctor only replied, already knowing what his supervisor would ask him.

“Your shift ends tomorrow morning right?” he asked and only continued when Roman nodded, “Could you sort these files for me, for tomorrow? It would be really nice and would save me a lot of time.”

“Of course, doctor,” he smiled, taking the pile the older one was handing him. He actually had no will to sort files, which was as boring as it sounded, but the question his supervisor had asked him hadn't really been a question, but an order and Roman knew better than to say no to him. As nice as Dr. Weidenfeller could be, when he asked for something, his interns would better do it if they ever wanted to become a surgeon one day.

“Thank you, I’ve already sorted things out, and you don’t have to be at the emergency room until eight, which should leave you enough time,” he smiled, putting his hand on his shoulder before leaving him in front of the elevators, certainly knowing that Roman would rather do anything else than sorting post-op patient’s files.

Sighing, the young doctor grabbed the pile as best as he could and entered the elevator when the door eventually opened. He greeted the nurse inside it and after a few moments, the doors opened again on his floor. He hurried to the locker room to change and then went to sit in one of the break rooms to start working.

As he was expecting it, sorting the patients’ files had not become more interesting than it had been the last time he had done it, and he resigned himself to the prospect of spending some boring and tiring hours. After less than one hour and in the middle of his third file – there were about fourteen - someone sat down at his table, and Roman could not resist but look at the person.

It was Edith, one of the nurses of the orthopaedic department, with who he got along quite well. The mid-fifty-something lady had always been nice to him, giving him some advices she had learned through her career. Nurse Edith had her own manner of speaking and appeared to be a little bit distant and cold at first sight, but she never looked at him as if he was some noisy child which did not know anything as some other experienced nurses tended to do with the intern doctors. Her face wore the marks of her age, but she was still a beautiful woman in Roman’s opinion. Her eyes were sharp, and she was able to analyse every situation precisely. This quality had helped Roman throughout the years of working beside her whenever he had needed help. The young physician did not know much about her personal life, as she was not very keen on talking about it, always remaining professional, but from what he had collected here and there, he assumed that her life had not been that easy.

“Good afternoon, Roman,” she greeted him while opening her the box she had brought with her, in which Roman knew were some biscuits she usually ate during her break.

“Hey, Edith! How are you?” he smiled, taking a break from his files.

“Oh, you know, same old, same old,” she smiled back, offering him a biscuit which he gladly took. “Charlotte Marenaud has been transferred to another room, and since she has arrived there, she hasn’t stopped asking for you, so I hope you’ll go see her soon, or the other nurses will hate her for calling them every twenty minutes,” she said, and Roman could hear by her tone that she was amused by the whole situation.

“I’ll go see her once I’ve finished this file then,” he smiled, gesturing at the opened folder in front of him.

“Dr. Weidenfeller definitely left you some!” she exclaimed when she looked at the stack next to him.

“Yeah, about fourteen, I’m _pleased_ ,” he sighed, emphasising his last word ironically.

“Yeah, I feel for you, he could have least have divided the work piles and left half of them for someone else,” she uttered, before taking a bit of her biscuit.  
The conversation continued slowly while Roman was starting to sort out the papers again, chatting with her at the same time.

Eventually, he closed his third file and stood up to go to the room Edith had indicated to him. The walk was short, and he found himself knocking at the door of his patient’s room sooner than he had expected.

“Hello?” he asked, opening the door slowly to be sure that he was letting Charlotte enough time to cover herself if she had to, and eventually got in when a small “come in!” answered him.

The smile he saw stretching the lips of the young woman when she spotted him definitely was a satisfied one, and Roman could clearly see that she was happy to see him.

“Finally! I kept asking the nurses for you for what felt like ages!” she exclaimed vividly while the physician went to pick up the folder at the end of her bed to check on her last vital constants.

“I know, they told me, but you must know that calling them every twenty minutes wouldn't have accelerated my arrival, I just started my shift,” he chuckled, happy to see her being so much better than she had been the previous morning. “Are you in pain, or is there anything bothering you more than it should?” he eventually asked, professionally this time.

“No that’s okay, one of the nurses came in to change my painkillers pouch about an hour ago,” she said after he had just read the exact same thing in the folder.

“That’s good then,” he nodded, before putting her file back where it had been.

“I wanted to talk to you, Dr. Bürki,” she suddenly started solemnly.

“Yeah, I figured because of the countless times you had called for the nurses,” he said, half teasing, half serious.

“I’m sorry about that… could you sit, please?” she gestured to the chair next to her bed, which was still unmoved from its usual place against the wall and which mean that he was her first ‘visitor’ today.

“Sure,” he muttered, bringing the chair close to the bed, eyeing her injured leg covered by the blanket. It was twice its normal size, but it was normal just after an operation and injury she suffered from. “What do you want to tell me?”

“Firstly, can I ask your name if it’s not too indiscreet?”

“Well, my name’s Roman,” he smiled gently.

“Then Roman, I would like to thank you. Yesterday definitely was one of the, if not THE, worst day of my life and you were the only one being there for me. You were the one holding my hand while I was suffering, understanding only half of what the other doctors were telling me and terrified as ever, and I will always be thankful for that. You seem different from your other colleagues: the other doctors in the emergency room were not as understanding and caring as you were, and you truly helped me. I don’t know how I would have made it through the previous day without you, so once again thank you so much for being there yesterday. Plus, most importantly, for holding my hand when I needed it,” she said slowly, taking time to pick up the right words, and it reminded Roman once again that she was actually a foreigner and that there must definitely have been times when she had not understood at all what was happening around her the other day. It must surely have been frightening as she said it, and he realised now how much holding her hand - which had seemed only natural for him at the time - must have meant to her.

He was not used to be thanked. Well of course, patients often thanked him after he sutured them or took care of their injuries, but they never thanked him like Charlotte had just done. They never thanked him for being himself, human. It was surprising, and he did not really know what to answer her. Charlotte seemed to be a thoughtful young woman, and he did not want to hurt her by not answering her properly.

“Hum… You’re welcome, it’s normal, it’s my job,” he eventually drawled, unsure of his words, which actually were quite simple.

“No it’s not, you were kinder than the other doctors, and you helped me a lot,” she insisted, not seeing that her words were making him more and more uncomfortable.

“Well, if you say so… you’re welcome,” he smiled awkwardly, praying that she would drop the subject and it indeed worked.

“I’m sure you have better things to do than staying here, you should go back to work,” she eventually told him after a moment of silence, but Roman could clearly see that she did not want to be left alone, and despite his previous unease, an idea came into his mind.

“I’ll be back soon, ok?” he said while standing up. When she nodded, he left the room to go back to the break room and grab the stack of files there before making his way back to her room again.

Halfway through though, he heard someone call his name – he hoped that this time, it would not lead to another stack of folders to sort – and he turned around to see a tall and lean body from across the corridor sprinting to where he was standing. The young man eventually reached him, out of breath, his usually white cheeks red from the effort.

“Roman! I’ve been looking for you for ages!” Julian exclaimed when his breathing was calm enough. “Anyway, do you have a few minutes?” the dark haired continued, his chocolate-brown eyes pleading him to say ‘yes’.

Roman had already talked to him before; they were not real friends, but could be described as acquaintances. It was not because he did not appreciate the younger one, but because they did not spend much time together apart from the times when Erik was with them.

“Yes, but very quickly then, I don’t have much time, I have to go somewhere,” he eventually agreed, and it was true, he wanted to go back to Charlotte’s room. Not to mention that he also did not have much time left to finish sorting the files.

“I’ll be quick then. Erik is your best friend, right?” Roman nodded, not really wanting to know what was coming next. “Do you know, by any chances, why he’s avoiding me? He sent me a text last night, telling me that he wanted to talk to me, but when I tried to go and see him this morning, he left the room the minute he saw me, and he did the same at lunch and about thirty minutes ago when I tried to go see him during my break.”

Sighing loudly, Roman pinched the bridge of his nose cursing his best friend under his breath for choosing to be the coward in this messed-up story they seemed to have, Matthias, Julian and Erik himself.

“Listen, Julian, you’re a good person, and there’s no way for Erik to have a good reason to avoid you. I can’t tell you much more, it’s not my place to tell. You need to find a way to talk to him, and if Matthias is there, it would be even better. I know he can be quite stubborn but you’ll eventually succeed, just trust me in that, he’s been my best friend for ten years now, and I think I know him quite well,” Roman replied, looking at the younger physician in front of him. Julian listened carefully to him, and even though Roman hadn't given him the answer he would have liked to know, the older one knew that he had at least managed to reassure him.

“Ok… you’re right, sorry for bringing you into this,” Julian smiled slightly before turning around and going back to where he had come from –surely the neurologic department, considering that he worked and studied there, Dr. Höwedes being his supervisor.

Roman did not know how he achieved it, but he managed to take out his phone from his pocket, the piles tangling dangerously in the process, and when he eventually succeeded he typed a simple text to his light haired friend.

_'Stop being an arse and talk to him!'_

 

After the talk with Julian, Roman got back to Charlotte’s room and started sorting the files again while making small talk with her at the same time. He learnt that her family would not be able to come over and visit her for at least another two weeks, as they could not take days off from their jobs. It pained him to know that she would be all alone for that much of time. The hours passed by quickly and eventually, he finished sorting the files. He said goodbye to her at the same time her dinner came in, leaving her room to go and put the files in Dr. Weidenfeller’s office. Once done, he got down to the emergency room and truly ‘started’ his shift.

The whole night was filled with vomit from some drunken guys who threatened to kill each other way many more times than Roman would have liked to hear, insulting and provoking each other as much as they could possibly do in their wasted state. One of them had managed to cut his head pretty badly and needed stitches, and saying it had been difficult to take care of his wound would have been an understatement. His next patient was a pregnant woman suffering anorexia, and when he saw her, how thin she was compared to her swollen belly, Roman’s stomach turned upside down. It was clear she was suffering from her disorder and that she wanted to get better - at least for her baby - but she was too weak and did not have enough strength to fight any more. When the ambulance men took her here she had not eaten for three days, and it started to cause problems with the baby. Roman hated it, but he did not have any other choice than to ask for her transfer to the psychological department of the hospital. Eventually by two a.m., the number of patients started to decrease, and the rest of the night went by rather smoothly, only interrupted by the first two drunken men, which continued to cause troubles all night long.

At some point during one of his breaks, he thought about Erik, and whether or not he should talk to him about Yann. Erik knew everything that was to know about his life, and he wanted to know the opinion of his friend about what had happened, and if he had done the right decision by taking care of Yann’s wounds. But when he thought more about it, he decided once again to forget what had occurred, forget about Yann as it could only harm him. He should not spend hours thinking about him, the man had chosen to not come back and he must have reasons for that. Reasons Roman definitely did not want to know if they were actually as dangerous as the other man had pretended.

Seven a.m. came quite quickly for a night shift – which Roman usually found longer and horrible -, and he said goodbye to his co-workers before walking back to the locker room. The way back to his flat was quick because the rush hours had not started yet, and when he eventually opened the door to his apartment – out of breath as the elevator was still out of order -, the first thing he did was to slump down on his sofa. The second one was to grab his phone and order some pizza from somewhere he knew delivered at any time of the day.

Pizzas at seven a.m. could be a weird thing to eat for any other people, but his schedule was different because of the night-shifts, so it was dinner time for him, and he certainly would sleep the entire day anyway.

Having closed his eyes a few minutes prior, he was starting to doze off when the bell finally rung. Despite hating that he had been woken up, the young physician smiled, knowing that it was his food, and he quickly went to the door, already feeling sorry for the delivery man who had to climb up six stairs – Roman promised himself to tips him generously because of that.

Who or what he found behind the door though was definitely not what he expected. Unless pizzas’ delivery now included delivery men with no pizza boxes, a sword which seemed to be a real one and not a toy. And huge and dark… _wings_?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! So here is chapter 6, I dearly hope you'll like it. :)  
> Thank you for your comments and kudos, it means a lot to me, so keep doing it. :D  
> Once again, I'd like to thank Blue_Night for doing the beta of this story, she's awesome and do help me a lot.   
> Much of love,  
> Alika

         Roman did not have the time to even wonder about the man in front of him, because the mysterious stranger swayed the massive sword towards him without any warning, missing him only for a few millimetres, thanks to the remaining reflexes of his past as a goalkeeper when he had still been a child. Unfortunately, he tripped while stepping backward when the man tried to hit him again, and he landed on the floor, being at complete mercy of his attacker.

         Normally, Roman was not really the one to be afraid of everything, but right now, having to do his best to not get killed, he could not help but feel his stomach turn at the idea that this morning would be his last morning.

         He struggled around, trying to avoid getting hit by the impressive weapon, and despite being fully focused on his ‘task’, he still heard his attacker ask him: “Where is he?”

         “Who?” he replied quickly, managing to get back on his feet eventually, in what felt like a superhuman move.

         “You know who I’m referring to. Don’t make me repeat myself!” He shouted, kicking Roman right in the ribs with his knee, bending him in the process and taking advantage of his position by landing the handle of his sword right in the middle of Roman's back. The young physician fell back onto the floor instantly, coughing and groaning in the same breath.

         Up until now he had managed to not get hit, but now that he got his first punches, and he had to admit he was even more scared of the situation.

         The pain in his ribs was nearly unbearable, and he was quite certain he had heard a crack when the man had kicked him there. If he hadn't already been certain that a few ribs had been broken during their pretty one-sided fight beforehand, the man’s boots kicking right the same spot on his side again would have proved that to him without any doubts right now. Only seconds before, the pain had seemed ‘bearable’, now Roman did not know how he should ever be able to get up again because of the agonizing pain.

         “I don’t know who you’re talking about!” he cried out just before feeling the sole of the winged man smash his jaws, the other side of his head banging against the floor. He was not sure in his hurting and dazed state, but when he thought more closely about it, he actually might know what or who his attacker was asking about. There was only one possibility.

         “LIAR! He was here! I can still sense him!” the stranger exclaimed as he crouched down to be closer to his face. He grabbed Roman’s hurting jaws between his calloused fingers, pulling him upward to look him in the eyes, “It’s the last time I repeat myself, is that clear? WHERE IS THIS BASTARD SOMMER?” the wing-man yelled, pushing him down violently again, landing another punch in his already bruised jaw, and Roman did not have enough strength left to try and stand up again. His midsection burnt from the blows he had gotten here, and breathing had become much harder with the last kick.

         Despite never having mentioned his last name, Roman knew who ‘Sommer’ was. It was the only solution, and he sighed mentally. He should have known things would not be easy if he helped the strange man. The simple fact he had categorically refused to go to the hospital had been a huge hint.

         “I don’t know!” he tried, only to feel his back crash against one of his hall’s walls. His helpless body slid down on it, and the young doctor gathered his last remaining strength to curl up into a ball. “Please! I don’t-” he did not even have time to finish his sentence before feeling the man’s boots slamming themselves into his back, taking his breath away for a few seconds.

         “You do know. You do-”

         “BUT I DON’T! He left yesterday without telling me more than that!” he interrupted him, immediately regretting what had slipped his lips when he saw the eyes of the man. He had not noticed that until now, but the whites of his eyes were red, deep red, as if they were made of blood and the red contrasted the light blue of his iris. The man grabbed him by the neck, pulling him up, and Roman could barely touch the floor with his toes. The hand around his neck was choking him as it tightened around him.

         The deep red eyes looked straight at him, and just from this look, Roman knew he was not going to make it out alive. From the corner of his eyes he could still see the massive sword shining with the lights, and its hedge seemed as sharp as a ham knife. It surely would cut through his skin as if it was warm butter. Letters –runes?- from what he supposed to be an ancient time were gathered together in its middle, circled by many sort of ornaments. Roman was not a sword fan, but he had to admit this one was unique and surely of high quality. What was impressive though, was its size. It was as large as one of his legs, and the blade had the length of half of his body.

         He did not have much more time to look at it as he felt its tip against the side of his neck, just above his jugular vein. Roman’s hands were vainly trying to move the hand holding him away.

         “You’re a doctor right? So you know how easy it would be for you to bleed like a stuck pig if some turns of events would lead to that, right?” he said, pressing the blade ever so slightly against his skin and Roman could feel it cut his skin superficially.

         “Please! I don’t know where he is…” he breathed out, tears gathering in his eyes as he knew it was the last instants of his life. “Believe me, please…” he begged, and he hated himself for how weak he was. People could think that he was strong and would easily defeat his opponent if he ever had to fight, given his muscled stature, but the truth was that the man in front of him was too strong. It was as if he was not even human, and the more he thought about it, the more he came to the conclusion that his attacker was indeed not from the same specie as him. The wings, the red eyes, the superhuman strength... everything made senses.

         “It's actually sad… you are such a pretty one…” he smiled nearly apologetically, but Roman saw through this. It was a smirk. He was enjoying this. He was enjoying causing him pain. He was enjoying the idea of killing him. “One last chance?”

         “I just don’t know!” Roman cried out breathlessly, his feet trying to kick him in the shins, in vain.

         “Uh-Uh, wrong answer,” he smirked once again before throwing him a few meters away in the middle of his living-room like a weightless object. Another painful moan escaped the young physician’s lips, while he gasped air into his empty lungs.

         He had landed on his stomach, and he felt his attacker feet pushing him on his back, pressing against his injured ribs and drawing a pained whine out of his throat. This only resulted in the winged man laughing malevolently.

         The evil man eventually raised his sword in the air, preparing the blow to fall right in the middle of his chest just above his heart. At least, he would not suffer for too long, Roman thought as he closed his eyes, preparing himself for what was coming. His last thought went to his family. To his mother whom he loved with all his heart. To his father with whom he had diverging opinions but whom he still loved. To his little brother, to the uncountable memories of stupid things they had done together as children, to the uncountable laughters growing up together had created. He thought about Erik –even though he knew that this one was not his real brother, but he considered him as such - and how much he hoped that his best friend would stop being a coward and enjoy his life to the fullest with the two men he loved. He even though about Charlotte, certainly still asleep now, and how he wanted her to be happy, to be surrounded by the people she truly loved instead of only by the nurses who sometimes where too impersonal.

         He prepared himself, wishing all his beloved ones to be alright after his death and waited for the final stroke.

         He waited.

         And waited.

         But instead of feeling a blade run through his weak and injured body, he only heard the metallic sound of two swords colliding.

         Roman quickly opened his eyes, only to find the massive sword of the winged man barred by a smaller blade. His eyes followed its blinking steel, followed the muscled arms - which he immediately recognised - to the smooth but still injured face of Yann.

         His hair was pulled backward in a half bun which cleared his face. The wounds on his face seemed nearly healed. He was wearing a loose t-shirt which showed his collarbone, and from where he was lying on the floor, if Roman focused enough, he could see two small bumps where the two impressive wounds had been. When he saw them, he wondered if they were due to an infection seeing they had not been stitched up, or if it was due to something else. Something more unconventional. Something with feathers.

         From then, everything happened rapidly. Roman barely had the time to blink as the two started to fight in earnest, smashing each other against the furniture of his living room, breaking a few in the process. The evil man attacked forcefully, his hits meant to kill, but Yann seemed experienced in sword fighting and countered every of his attack, blocking them with his own blade or with smooth dodges. Despite his improved state, it was clear Yann was still not fully healed from the injuries covering his entire body which Roman had seen when he had taken care of them.

         “Here you are, coward!” the dark winged one snarled, still smirking. “You should have known that hiding with the humans was not a good idea! And certainly not with this one!” he added laughing loudly, and the other one growled, finally trying an attack by himself, but failing in the end as he dodged away.

         “You have no right to hurt him and you know it!” Yann shouted as he tried again and again to hit him.

         “Did you really think the rules would apply to me? Have you ever seen me respecting all your seraphim and nephilim’s agreements? Only the fallen ones follow them! Have you forgotten what I am?” he laughed evilly again, hitting Yann in the ribs when   he tried a too bold move. But surprisingly, he did not shove the blade into him straight away as Roman would have thought, instead he flattened it against him and Yann jolted away, a high pitched scream escaping him as if he had been burnt by acid.

         The stranger took advantage of the situation, kicking him forcefully to make him fall and unfortunately succeeded with his move. He tried to hit him with his sword once again, but Yann barred him the access to his throat with his own sword quickly, pushing him away just enough time to get back on his feet.

         “I haven’t forgotten what you are, Melheï, but I had hoped you would leave him out of this,” Yann uttered while sidestepping to not get hit.

         “Good, then you will die knowing your cause is hopeless,” he replied, smirking when he landed his sword against Yann’s knee, Roman hearing his piercing screaming when the steel touched him. The blade was just touching him, it was not even digging in the skin. It was burning him; it was causing him a greater pain than death would probably have. His saviour fell onto his knees when the blade touched his ribs, his sword falling beside him as his face scrunched in great pain.

         Roman did not know how he did but when the attacker prepared his hit, he rolled forward, pushing Yann out of the way, just in time before the blade cut the young doctor superficially in the forearm.

         The second surprise stilling Melheï’s body for the split of a second was enough for Yann to get up again and land a hit at the hand holding his sword. The impact was enough to let the sword slip out of his hand and fall down onto the ground with a sharp, metallic noise, and a few second later Yann’s body was pressed against the evil man’s, his sword running through him.

         Roman just had enough time to see his eyes widen before he vanished in the air in a black cloud.

         Right after that, another metallic sound resonated in the room as Yann collapsed down on his knee, his powerless hand losing the hold of his own sword.

         They both stayed silent a moment, their ragged breaths being the only sounds in the room, while Roman was thinking about what had just happened.

         Waking up yesterday afternoon, he would never have thought that he would have to fight for his life after coming home the following morning. All he had wanted was to eat a pizza and go to bed, but instead, he had nearly got killed and seen incredible thing. People would think that he had gone mad if he ever told what had happened. Erik would never believe him. No one would ever believe him. It was too crazy. Even he himself could not believe what had just happened.

         The man had not been human. He had had wings. Black wings. He had tried to kill him. And then… then he had vanished into the air. It was unbelievable. It could not have possibly happened in real life. If it had been a film Roman would have understood, but… this was real life! Or was it? Was he dreaming? Had he just passed out on his couch, still waiting for his pizza to be delivered?

         But no, the pains of his injuries were too real to be only a dream or a nightmare in this case.

         Something moved in the room, and when he lifted his gaze he saw Yann coming toward him and out of instinct, Roman just backed away. He did not want to be near him again. Actually, he wanted Yann to go away and never come back.

         “Roman… please…”

         “No, go away, leave me, get out of my life!” he screamed hysterically.

         “Roman, you’re hurt, you need help…” Yann stepped forward again, and when he tried to crawl away, Roman found himself blocked by his couch behind him. “Please…” he mumbled while crouching down in front of him, “Let me help you…”

         “Ok,” he eventually gave in, more because he was too weak and exhausted to fight than because he trusted Yann, “but under one condition!”

         “Whatever you want,” the other one agreed immediately, grabbing one of his hands with his own.

         “What was all of that about? And you won't lie to me or hide information this time; I want to know everything of what has happened this morning.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! First of all I wish you all a happy new year! Personally 2017 can't be worse than 2016 I think seeing how many things had gone wrong, so I hope it will be a good year for you too!  
> Secondly, I apologises for the time it took me to post a new chapter, December had been a pretty sh*ty month for me and I really was not in the mood to write anything...  
> Anyways, I hope you will like this chapter, and once again I would like to thank Blue_night for the amazing beta work she's doing (if you had not, go read her story she's an awesome writer!).  
> Much of love,  
> Alika

         Silence filled the room since Roman had demanded the truth. Yann was looking at him with wide eyes, and Roman knew the long-haired man was weighing the pros and cons in his head. Roman had been serious, and he was not going to let the other man go away without explaining to him what had happened. He had nearly been killed by this ‘Melheï’ because of Yann, the least he could do now was telling him what all of this actually was about.

         Yann eventually sighed and let go of Roman’s hands to get up from his crouched position. The young doctor watched him sit at the table and put back the strands of hair which had fallen in front of his eyes before looking at him intently.

         “Roman, I don’t think I c-” he started but was interrupted shortly after.

         “No, you said ‘whatever you want’, and I want the truth!” he snapped as he vainly tried to get up, his injuries causing him too much pain. His ribs were killing him every time he breathed, and his knee was in no way able to move and would not carry his weight in this state.

         “I know what I said, Roman, but the truth will put you in danger!”

Roman only snickered at that.

“I mean it. What happened tonight is nothing compared to what is expecting you if I tell you the truth.”

         “This can’t be worse; I nearly died, for fucking's sake!” Roman exclaimed, his face contorted with the pain his outburst had caused him. All his nerves screamed for him to get help from Yann right now, but he simply couldn't waste the opportunity to learn the truth just after having helped him going to the hospital without any explanation.

         “I know, and you deserve the truth, but I don’t want something like that to happen again, that’s why I can’t tell you,” Yann tried again.

         “You said it yourself, I deserve the truth!”

         “But I can’t tell you!” the other male pleaded desperately.

         “Yes, you can, Yann, you can! So please stop beating around the bush, it’s only making me angrier!”

         Silence filled the room again. They were looking each other in the eyes, none of them daring to look away. This lasted a moment, Roman firm eyes locked on Yann’s pleading ones.

         As a repetition of what had happened a few minutes prior, Yann sighed and looked away first.

         “Ok. I’ll tell. But you have to promise me one thing first,” he eventually said after a bit more silence. He looked back at Roman, waiting for him to nod before carrying on, “You cannot, under any circumstances, talk about what I’m going to tell you, is that clear?”

         “I won’t, I promise,” Roman said immediately, just to remember his friends afterwards, how was he going to explain his injuries to them, then?

         “Ok, ok, I can do that,” Yann mumbled more to himself, as he stood up and walked in front of him. “Please don’t freak out more than you actually are,” he added before grabbing the hem of his shirt, confusing Roman even more. He already had seen his body while taking care of his wounds what was Yann going to show him? A gang tattoo? Roman had seen none of them. Plus, he was fairly certain ‘Melheï’ had not been human, maybe Yann was not either?

         Once his shirt taken off, the man turned around showing him his back were the two big wounds which should have stood there were replaced by two big bumps. This definitely was not what he had been expecting. The wounds were fully healed and the bumps were pointy, the tips of them being white contrasting with his tanned skin. Roman immediately put two and two together and understood what those bumps were.

         “Am I dreaming or having a nightmare?” he asked out loud. This could not be real; it had to be his tiredness that made him see things. He certainly was sleeping on his couch in real life and would wake up soon.

         “No you’re not, Roman. This is reality,” the other man simply uttered, still showing him his back.

         “So is it-” he still tried to ask only to be interrupted by Yann.

         “Yes. These are my wings growing back,” he explained bending his head low. It took a few more seconds for him to continue, “When you found me on your doorstep the other day, I had just gotten into a fight with Melheï, and he cut off my wings. He’s a demon, and I’m an angel.”

         “You speak about him as if he was still alive, but you killed him in front of me,” Roman mentioned confused. At this point Roman was so confused about everything that he did not question the fact that demons and angels existed any longer.

         “Death is a foreign concept for us immortals, whether it is for demons, angels and fallen ones, we will always be reincarnated one way or another. The war between good and evil will never take an end; we’re all bound to fight forever,” Yann simply answered turning around, and Roman could then see his face, “I thought you would be more surprised,” he confessed looking at him with his head inclined sideward.

         “Well… I am. I don’t know if I’m imagining all of this, or if you’re just mocking me with some visual effects. I don’t know, the only thing I know is that I’m in a lot of pain so if it has all been a joke, it’s not nice at all.”

         “I promise this is not a joke, and once again, no, you’re not dreaming. You asked the truth and here it is. I already told you that I can’t lie to you and I’ll never have the will to lie to you, Roman. I value you more than that,” the angel said crouching down again, “Now that I’ve told you the truth will you let me help you?”

         “Ok,” the young doctor agreed, letting the other man help him to sit on the couch which was just behind him. “Why did you come on my doorstep?” he suddenly asked remembering the other man’s words.

         “What?” Yann stopped what he was doing – _which was_ grabbing a pillow to put behind Roman’s back - to look at him in confusion.

         “You said you were immortal, and most of your injuries are already healed, while it would have taken weeks for a human. You could have gone back to your kin, so why did you come to me this night?” Roman explained, staring at the long-haired man expectantly. This one had literally froze the moment Roman’s words had been said, and the young doctor could see clearly that he was having a battle in his brain on whether to answer him or not.

         “My wings were cut off. They still are and it will take them a lot of time to grow back completely. Wings are what make us angels, who were are. I can't go back to my kin because I do not have them any longer. I can’t go back to them without my wings, I would not be allowed in,” Yann eventually said, and Roman felt bad when he saw Yann’s face. It was sad and… shameful? It was clear that the angel felt ashamed of what had happened, of having his wing cut off. Roman could only imagine the importance they had. It was beyond the physical aspect. They definitely had an importance humans would never understand. “I’m going to heal you now, is it ok?”

         “Heal me?” He asked, not sure of what the man had meant.

         “Yes, I can heal you, or anyone else to be more precise. I can’t do it completely unfortunately, I’m still weak myself, and with my wings away, most of my strength is away too,” the angel answered, looking at him, his chocolate-like eyes meeting Roman’s equally brown one, “Could you take your shirt off, please?”

         Roman nodded quietly, letting the other man help him taking off his shirt, still processing what Yann had told him. This male was an angel who had the ability to heal other people. Roman did not know why it surprised him, it seemed logical for people like him to be able to do such things, but something was still off. That was when he remembered Yann had not fully answered his previous question. He actually had only partially answered to it. He had not answered the part about why he had come to him. It made sense that he had not gone back to his kin now, but why did he choose him among all others and mostly why would he need human medicine when he was healing _that_ fast?

         Instead of asking more questions on what he had just realised, Roman decided to let the other one heal him first, the pain in his body starting to become unbearable with every passing seconds.

         He stayed immobile and quiet while Yann laid his open palm on his chest, right above his heart. The angel’s hand was cold against his skin, and a shiver ran through his spine at the contact. Roman saw Yann’s eyes glance leftwards, briefly gazing at the tattoo there, before closing his eyes, certainly focusing on his task and for a moment nothing happened. Roman waited, not sure of what he was actually waiting for. Actually, the only thing he was sure of was that his midsection still ached with every breath, that his legs were still in no condition to carry him, his jaw had ached every time he had uttered a sound, and he could still feel the pain his last words had caused.

         Yann was fully focused in front of him, his face contorted in effort. After a few more seconds, a groan escaped him and a few seconds later Roman felt it. Well he thought that he felt what he should feel at least. It was as if something was filling him, filling his body with something Roman could only describe as… _life_? Roman literally gasped when he felt it, just before a long moan escaped his lips from the overwhelming feeling. The sensation of ‘life’ filling him only increased as seconds passed by, and Roman would never be able to describe how it actually felt. It was beyond words, it was beyond languages, it was beyond everything, it was just… _life_. Nothing ached any more; it was just him and the palm on his chest above his heart, filling him with the most beautiful feeling Roman will ever experience.

         Unconsciously, the young doctor had closed his eyes to enjoy the moment to the fullest, but was brought back to reality when he heard a deep and pained groan coming from in front of him. If Yann’s face had been focused at first, it was now red and twisted in pain, but the other man continued to do what he was doing despite his evident exhaustion and discomfort.

         When he noticed it, Roman immediately grabbed Yann’s hand with his own, pushing it away from him, interrupting the healing process and leaving them both panting loudly, but not for the same reasons. Yann was on his knees in front of him, one of his hands on Roman’s knee to keep his balance after such an effort, the other one still held by Roman’s, and the young doctor was still trying to recover from the feeling of awe he had just experienced.

         His injuries were nearly all healed, his jaw ached a bit but he was fairly sure it was not broken any more, just as for his ribs and all his other previously hurting bones. They were all fixed, only a few bruises here and there. Roman felt guilty for how exhausted the angel seemed to be. It was his fault in some way; Yann had been healing him, giving him his own strength to heal his injuries while he was weak himself.

         “Are you ok?” Roman eventually asked when the angel had not moved from his kneeling position in front of him for a long time, his eyelids still closed and his mouth wide open, gasping for air.

         “Y-yeah… I will be… I just need some time,” Yann mumbled, trying to get up to sit on the couch and Roman helped him do so.

         Once again, they remained silent for a moment. Roman stared in front of him, gazing at the television screen a few meter away. It was turned off, but Roman could not look away, not daring to look at the man sitting next to him.

         What had happened was crazy. Firstly, he nearly got killed when he had opened the door to who he thought was the pizza deliverer, only to find a dark winged huge man with a massive sword. This one had beaten him up to know where Yann was and had been about to kill him when - eventually - Yann had appeared out of nowhere, saving him. Yann had ‘killed’ this strange man, and when Roman had asked for the truth, this one revealed to be beyond what the young doctor could have ever imagined. Demons existed! And Angels too! _Yann was an angel for Christ's sake!_ He had wings! Roman would definitely have preferred him to be part of a mafia gang; at least it would have been more understandable. And now, Yann had healed his injuries. When Roman had woken up yesterday noon, he would never have imagined something like that would happen once he would have gotten home after his night shift. This was unbelievable and even though Roman had seen all of this with his very own eyes, he himself had trouble believing it was not a dream or some kind of bad joke.

         Strangely, what surprised him the most was to see how Yann had healed him. Being a doctor himself, he was healing people too in a way. It fascinated him to see Yann could do the same. They were both healer, even though in a different kind of way, Roman having learnt it the human way, at the university, and Yann being born _-?-_ with this ability. The young doctor could only imagine how much his power could heal, if the angel had been able to heal him just with the touch of his hand and with most of his own strength lost. This certainly was beyond injuries; the angel could certainly cure diseases and even diseases with no ‘human’ remedy!

         So many questions raced in his head at this thought. This was definitely captivating, and the doctor inside Roman was excited by all of this. But before asking him questions about his healing abilities, Roman had another thing to be explained.

         “You did not really answer my question, you know,” he started, turning his face to look at Yann, “You did not explain why you came to me.”

         “I already told you I can’t go back to my kin without my wings,” the angel uttered opening his eyes.

         “That’s not what I meant. I know you can't go back, but why choose me amongst all other humans, and why did you choose to be healed the human way when you heal as fast as you do?” he asked firmly.

         “Roman… There are things I can’t-”

         “Don’t. I want the truth,” Roman interrupted him firmly.

         “And I can’t tell it. I already told you far too much, if I tell you _that_ , I’m putting myself in a very _very_ bad situation. I don’t want to lie to you, you deserve the truth, but… There are laws you know, I just can’t, overpass them all, I already broke several by telling you that angels and demons exist,” he said, his eyes begging his host to not ask anything else but Roman could not. He needed to know, needed the truth.

         “Why? Is it related with what you said to Melheï? That he should not have hurt me?” Roman pointed out, suddenly remembering their ‘discussion’.

         “Partly…” Yann sighed, looking away.

         “Then if it is related to me I want to know the truth! I deserve it!” the young doctor burst, standing up.

         “I know but I can’t!” Yann answered, emphasising every words.

         “Please! You owe me that!” Roman tried again and deep down he felt guilty because he knew that if Yann told him the truth, it would get him into trouble. “Yann, please…” he added when the other male did not answer.

         “Ok. Ok. I’ll tell you implicitly, and you’ll have to figure the rest out, ok?” he sighed rubbing his eyes with his open palms before looking at him again. “There are laws that protect humans from our conflicts; the human an angel is protecting - as in him being his guardian angel - is normally protected by those laws, but demons usually don’t respect them. Only fallen angels do as it is against their nature. An angel - whether he might be fallen or not - cannot harm humans, there is something inside of us that keeps us from doing so.”

         “So it means, that I’m your-”

         “Don’t say it, and yes,” he mumbled, looking away, and Roman knew there was something else. Something even deeper above all of this, something Yann would never confess to him. Roman wanted to ask about it, but Yann’s face, his pleading eyes when he looked back at him again, silenced him.

         “I can’t tell you more. I already said way too much, please be thankful for what I explained to you. If you care at least a tiny bit about me, don’t ask more,” he uttered, and Roman gulped, guilt hitting him hard. He felt bad for putting Yann in this position, for certainly getting him into a lot troubles when he would go back to his kin.

         “I’m thankful, Yann. Thank you so much for telling me so much… I’m sorry for being this bratty…” he apologised, kneeling in front of him and grabbing one of his hands.

         “It’s ok, I’ll deal with the consequences,” the angel sighed, and it broke Roman’s heart to see him so defeated.

         “Is it that bad?” he asked guiltily.

         “Let’s say that I’m not eager to go back for the moment, but it will be okay, don’t worry about me,” he said, squeezing his hand slightly in a reassuring way before letting go of it, but Roman was not convinced.

 


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, everyone! Sorry for how long it took for this chapter, as you might know by now, I'm really busy at school and very little time to write...  
> Anyway, I hope you'll like this chapter, I had fun writing it (like most of the others actually), and once again I would like to thank Blue_night for the amazing beta work she's doing (if you had not, go read her story she's an awesome writer!), she helps me a lot and will never stop thanking her for that.  
> Much of love,  
> Alika <3

         None of them had uttered a single word in the following twenty minutes, the two of them staring at the TV screen in front of them. To be honest, Roman was not really listening to what it was playing. From the corner of his eyes he could see Yann’s exhausted eyes fully focused on the cartoons, a look of what seemed to be amazement on his face, and Roman thought that it might be the first time he actually watched cartoons, it could even be the first time he watched the Television for what Roman knew.

         They remained silent for a few more minutes – _except for the sound of the television_ -, until Roman heard a knock on the door. Yann immediately turned his gaze away from the screen to look at him.

         “Are you expecting anyone?” he demanded, and despite his face not showing anything, the young doctor knew that the angel must be as frightened as he was at the moment. “If it is another demon, I’m in no way able to defend us right now, Roman, I’m too weak,” he added when Roman shook his head ‘no’.

         The two men slowly stood up, being as quiet as they could, Yann grabbing his sword still lying on the floor from the fight with Melheï, while Roman went to his bedroom to grab the baseball bat his brother had offered him when he had come back from a trip in the United-States a few years ago. The person behind the door knocked again, insistingly, and Yann hid behind the door when Roman slowly opened it, the baseball bat behind him.

         The young physician nearly collapsed from relief when he saw the person wanting to come in.

         It was the delivery man of the pizza he had ordered what felt like hours ago, and who he had completely forgotten due to what had happened in the meantime.

         “Good morning, are you Mister Bürki?” the small blond asked reading his notes.

         “Yes.”

         “Here is the pizza you ordered, then,” he smiled, handing the steaming box to him, and Roman quickly paid him, giving him a tip for walking up the six floors before closing the door. Once done, he leaned on it, one hand still holding onto the baseball bat and the other holding the pizza box, and closing his eyes.

         “You ordered … a pizza?” Yann eventually asked after a few seconds of silence.

         “Yes, it was before Melheï. I had forgotten about it,” and just like that he uncontrollably burst out with laughter at the whole crazy situation. Yann watched him a few more second before a small giggle passed through his lips; they had been so tensed and afraid that another demons would show up only to find out that it was just a delivery man for a pizza!

         Roman could not stop laughing and it lasted for a few more minutes before it died down and he eventually pushed himself away from the door, heading to the kitchen. He put the cardboard box down onto the table and opened it. As he was chewing his first bite he could see Yann standing by the door, staring at him, or more precisely at the pizza.

         The young doctor quickly swallowed before saying: “You can eat some, you know,” before taking another bite and sitting down on a chair.

         “I’m alright, thank you nonetheless,” he declined politely.

         “Is it because angels can’t eat human food?” Roman asked curiously while finishing his first part.

         “Angels can eat human food, that’s not a problem for us; we have the same physiology as you,” the long-haired one answered while sitting in front of him, taking out the hair tie from his hair, letting it fall down on the side of his face once again.

         Roman stayed silent, watching him doing so, unconsciously noticing how soft Yann's hair seemed to be. He thought about how nice it must be to bury his hand in the soft strands, but once he realised it, the young doctor pushed this thought aside, focusing back on the pizza between them.

         “Why aren’t you taking some then? You surely need to eat, you need strength,” the short-haired one managed to say after a moment.

         “I said that I can, not that I need, Roman,” the angel explained simply, “Beside there are better ways to get back my strength.”

         “Like?”

         “I can’t tell you, but I'm already working on it,” and despite Roman really wanted to know, he did not ask more. He knew Yann had already said too much and would be punished for it, so he should better not ask too much if he wanted Yann to be okay once he would go back to his kin.

         From there, they did not talk much more. Roman ate most of the pizza, putting the rest into the refrigerator before excusing himself to Yann and going to bed. He was dead tired from his night shift and the fight with Melheï had been rather strenuous to put it nicely. Even though Yann had healed him, the tiredness was still there, and he fell asleep the moment his head touched his pillow.

 

         The young doctor woke up to a sweet smell coming from outside of his bedroom. He had had a restless sleep. He just could not forget the moment when Melheï had nearly killed him. Roman had always said he wanted to die proudly, face death when it would come, to be able to wrap his mind around it, but after what had happened this morning he wasn't so sure about that any more.

         The feeling of knowing that your death was there, would occur in less than a minute or a few seconds, knowing that there were so many things you wished you had said to the ones you loved, knowing that there were so much things you would have wanted to do before dying, knowing that there was nothing to do against it; just knowing that you were about to die, this, this was the most horrible feeling in the world.

When he thought about it, Roman nearly found it funny that he had experienced both, the worst and the best feeling ever within less than twenty minutes.

         His sleep had been filled with numerous different scenes in which he had been about to die. Each time he had woken up the moment Melheï sword had swung in his direction, just before hitting him, his deep red eyes being the last thing he would ever see.

         Roman hoped that he could forget this moment, that it would not haunt him for too long, but deep down, as a doctor, he knew that it would be impossible. He knew how to recognise the sign of mental traumatism. The following days would be crucial to know if his mind had the ability to forget such a thing, and override this bad moment in his memory.

         He eventually got out of bed, grabbing a shirt and sweatpants and putting them on before getting out of his room. He followed the sweet smell to the kitchen and was surprised at the scene unfolding before his eyes. He even stopped in the middle of the door frame, staring at it.

         “What are you doing?” he asked after a few seconds of initial shock.

         “Uh- baking?” Yann simply answered, only turning his face to him for a few seconds, before continuing with what he was doing. He indeed was beating a light brown mixture in a bowl, the sound of the whisk in his hand hitting the bowl edge being the only sound for some minutes. The oven light was on, and Roman could see from where he was standing that there was already small cakes baking in there.

         Yann surely must have taken a t-shirt from Roman's closet while he had been sleeping, because the angel was no longer wearing his ripped t-shirt from the fight with Melheï, but a slightly too large black one that accentuated his toned arms which the young doctor recognised as one of his own.

         “Yes, I can see that, but why?” Roman eventually asked, leaning against the door frame.

    “I never said that I don’t know how to cook or bake, did I?” Yann uttered, not really waiting for an answer, he smiled before continuing, “I love baking. I always did. I remember how I used to bake this French pastry, how do they call it… _Chou à la crème_ , to y- to my friends and family,” he stopped beating the mixture while saying that, staring in front of him, and suddenly his smile fell, “y-th-they… they loved it.”

         “You have a family?” he asked surprised of the revelation.

         “I had, yes, now they’re - they’re not there any more,” the angel uttered and it sounded so sad, Roman felt guilty from asking this question.

         “Did they die?” the short-haired one still asked, unsure of how Yann would react.

         “I-I was human before… before becoming an angel. Everyone of us were at first. We eventually died for varied reasons, and instead of going where the souls normally go, ours were chosen to become angels,” Yann explained, his voice not showing any emotion while he added another egg to the mixture. “But it was a long time ago; I should not think about it,” he mumbled after a long silence and then turned his face to him, forcing a smile on his lips, “the first batch is nearly ready, I’m sure you’ll love it.”

         It was weird to see Yann like that. Surely, they did not know each other for a long time, but still, Roman could not help but see the pain and the conflict in the angel’s eyes when he resumed beating the mixture. He surely must have outlived the ones he loved, seeing them die from afar while he continued to live as an angel, eternally. He might as well have seen his own children die from old age if he ever had had some in his human life. He must have seen generations coming to the world, growing older and eventually dying, leaving earth to make room for a new one, again and again. The young physician wondered how old Yann actually was, it was fascinating to know that he had been human before, but it also was very sad at the same time.

         Roman could not imagine how Yann must be feeling about it. He himself would not have been able to bear it. Seeing all those he loved dying one after the other, not being able to help them when as an angel he could heal anyone.

         Thinking about his family, Roman remembered that he had promised to go back home this week-end.

         “How long will you stay?” he blurted out after a moment, while Yann was taking the baked Chou out of the oven.

         “Well I was hoping to stay until my wings grew back, but if you want me to leave-”

         “NO!” Roman exclaimed quickly, maybe too quickly, and when he realised that, he added, “I mean you can stay as long as you want to, I have no problem with it, especially if you'll bake pastry for me, as I love them,” Yann smiled nearly knowingly at this, “I just- just wanted to make sure that you won't not go away in two hours like last time…”

         “I’m not leaving for the moment, don’t worry. Firstly, I’m still too weak to do that without my wings, and secondly, the last time I left you alone was not really a success, right?” he tried to joke, referring to Melheï. “My wings should take at least three weeks to grow back, but they might take longer, so you can consider I’m sleeping on your couch for the next three weeks.”

         “And after?”

         “What do you mean by ‘after’?” Yann's brows furred while he was filling the Chou with the mixture he had just prepared.

         “After your wings grew back, you will go back to your kin, but will you come back?” Roman explained.

         “No,” the angel simply said and continued when he heard Roman sighing disappointedly, “It’s against the law Roman. I’m your-I’m your guardian angel; I should never have let you see me. You should never have learnt about us angels at all. They might- I might not be your guardian any more when I’ll go back, they’ll surely re-assign me to another human and give you another guardian angel. One less fucked up than me, not that this would be difficult,” he murmured this last sentence so quietly that Roman nearly did not catch it.

         “But… they can’t do that!”

         “They do. I fucked up. Badly. Fortunately it’s not the worst I made, so they’ll surely be nicer than the last time with my punishment.”

         “You’ve already been punished?” It was surprising seeing how important the laws seemed to be for the long-haired one – _but after all, laws were important for nearly everyone even for humans_.

         “Yes, once before.”

         “Why?”

         “I can’t tell you,” Yann said, and Roman left it there knowing it was for the best, “You want to taste the first one?” he eventually asked, handing him a Chou.

         So Roman did, and it tasted as good as it smelt. It was sweet and creamy. It was perfect and the young doctor must have shown it on his face because he could see the angel’s face light up with pride.

         “It’s delicious, Yann, well done! The one for who you baked them before must have been very spoiled by your pastry’s abilities,” he exclaimed his mouth still full from the Chou.

         “Yes… they were,” he uttered continuing to fill the other Chou with the crème and even though he was not showing him his face, Roman knew just by the sound of his voice that he should not have brought up his family again.

         “I’m sorry…. I can only guess how hurtful it must have been to see them go away.”

         “It was; but even though it still hurts, I accepted it. That’s how life is; we can’t do anything about it. You get used to it after a while,” and his voice sounded so resigned that Roman felt his own heart break.

         “I’m sure they would be proud of you, if they saw what you are now,” Roman tried, hoping it would help.

         “Yeah, you think so?” Yann turned around to face him, and once his chocolate-like eyes met Roman’s equally brown ones, the young physician nodded his head vigorously. Yann seemed to be a nice person, he seemed caring, funny, nice to get along with, and he was a guardian angel. Surely his beloved ones would be proud to see what he had become.

         They held their gaze for a few more seconds before the long- haired one turned his back to him once again to resume what he had been doing previously, slightly shaking his head doubtfully in the process.

         It was sad to see how little Yann thought of himself, and Roman understood it must be linked to the reason why he had been punished before. It must have been a huge transgression to the angels’ laws if it left him with so little confidence and self-esteem.

         “When is your next shift at the hospital?” Yann eventually asked after a long moment, and from there, the discussion went on about unimportant things for the rest of the evening. 


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!  
> Here is chapter 9, i hope you'll like it, and if so, don't hesitate to give me some feedback :)  
> It is becoming a habit now, but I think it's important, so I would like to thank my beta-reader Blue_Night for the amazing help she gives me :) You do help me a lot my dear, never doubt it and I will never be able to tell you how thankful I am!  
> Also, there is a small '*' as well as a '(see note in the end)' right in the middle of the chapter, I think it might help you to understand if you think this passage is confusing, I will explain to you why I choose it to be like that and why I did not change it even though Blue_night told me it could confuse you.  
> Much of love,  
> Alika <3

 

   From where he was sitting behind the steering wheel, Roman could easily reach the baseball bat lying on the back-seat in less than two seconds and it gave him the feeling of safety he needed.

   Yann had preferred to stay at his apartment while he was away at his parents’ house for the week-end and to say that it stressed the young physician to be alone, so far away from his guardian angel, was definitely an understatement.

   Now that he knew about the non-human world, that a demon had tried to kill him, he was more on his guard than he had used to be. He surely hadn't gone totally paranoid, but he was much more careful than he had been before.

   At first the short-haired one had thought that Yann would prefer to come with him to his parents’ place as it was more than four hours away and the angel was still out of shape and unable to fight, but Yann had surprised him when he had told him he'd rather stay alone in Roman's flat.

   Roman still remembered Yann’s face as he had brought the topic up. The long-haired one’s face had suddenly fallen, his eyes drifting away as he had weighed the pros and cons in his head _– or at least it had looked like that from Roman’s perspective -_ before eventually telling him that he would not come. The young doctor hadn't asked any more questions because the angel might have important matters to do here, and he would probably have to go and see for the ‘thing’ that would help him getting his strength back during Roman's absence. However, it was too late to go back now as he had only less than an hour left before he would finally reach his destination.

   As much as he tried to stay focused on the road, he could not help but let his mind wander off in his thoughts. He thought back to his last shift at the hospital and how Erik had nearly freaked out when he saw him and the still huge bruise on his jaw. Yann might have been able to fix his broken bones and most of his other injuries, but some bruises remained and unfortunately, it was impossible to hide the one on his jaw as it was very extended and in a dark blue-purple colour.

 _Roman had been reading a patient’s file in one of the break rooms when he heard more than saw Erik_ _sitting down_ _beside him. The neonatal doctor had buried his face in his arms_ _,_ _letting a long and loud groan out of his throat._

 **_“Who knew neonatal service could be that sad? I should have known before choosing this department!”_ ** _he_ _had_ _eventually_ _croaked_ _out, his voice a bit muffled_ _because_ _he had_ _still_ _his face buried in his arms._

 **_“Something went bad?”_ ** _the orthopaedic doctor_ _had_ _asked,_ _averting_ _his eyes from the result of the leg x-ray in front of him._

**_“Uhm…I told you about little Neele, right?”_ **

**_“Yeah the extremely preterm baby girl, if I remember right,”_ ** _Roman_ _had_ _mused, recalling how his friend had been happy to see her getting better and better at every passing week. Neele had been born_ _after_ _only twenty-seven_ _weeks_ _and at this period it had still been unsure_ _whether or not she would_ _live. But now she was about three months old –_ _which was the date when_ _she should actually have been born if she had not been premature._

 ** _“Yeah, well, it turned out she wasn’t as okay as we thought. We ran a few test earlier_** ** _because_** ** _she_** ** _was scheduled_** **_to_** ** _leave the hospital_** ** _this_** ** _week, and it turned out_** ** _that_** ** _she is hearing impaired and might never be able to walk, or if she does, her way of walking will not be ‘normal’ and only_** ** _for_** ** _a few meters…”_**

 ** _“Yeah… it sucks… but at least she survived, you should focus on that._** ** _You and your team_** **_gave_** ** _your best for her to be okay and as_** ** _you've_** ** _said she might never be able to walk, but who knows, in_** ** _six_** ** _years she might as well be running in the school-yard along_** ** _with_** ** _her friend?”_** _he_ _had_ _tried to comfort him,_ _patting_ _softly Erik's back with his hand_ _._

 ** _“Yeah you’re right. At least she’s still alive. I could not_** ** _have stood it_** **_having_** ** _another baby dying so shortly_** ** _after_** ** _the last one. I never imagined it would be that hard to cope with_** ** _it_** ** _,”_** _Erik_ _had_ _confessed, finally lifting his head_ _from_ _his arms, staring ahead of them. Roman_ _had_ _recalled the period in which Neele had been born, and unfortunately, two premature twin babies Erik had taken care of had died less than a week before. It had been difficult to accept for his friend, as his first_ _deceased_ _ones._ ** _“I'm glad that it is a bit easier in the orthopaedic department._** ** _”_**

 **_“It depends, you know, it is hard to see_ ** **_our_ ** **_patients suffer and sometimes, the injuries are too_ ** **_severe_ ** **_and cause the death of our patient. I know_ ** **_that_ ** **_seeing_ ** **_a_ ** **_baby_ ** **_die_ ** **_is horrible but it’s as horrible for us when someone dies too,_ ** **_believe me,_ ** **_”_ ** _the taller one_ _had simply explained_ _, looking back at the papers before him._

 ** _“HOLY SHIT!”_** _the younger one_ _had suddenly exclaimed, grabbing Roman's face quickly to turn it_ _to the side and take_ _a look at his jaw. The older one had immediately winced when Erik_ _had_ _traced his fingers_ _along_ _the dark bruise,_ _pulling_ _his head away._ ** _“What happened to you? It’s freaking huge, Roman!”_**

 **_Uh… nothing, don’t worry. I-uh… fell_ ** **_down_ ** **_the stairs in my building_ ** **_..._ ** **_You know, the elevator is still out of order and uh-uhm… my building is_ ** **_pretty_ ** **_old_ ** **_and_ ** **_the stairs are quite slippery as you know,”_ ** _he_ _had_ _finally lied after a few_ _moments_ _of panic._

 _“_ **_Uh, I’m definitely not convinced, but as long as you promise me you’re not in a bad situation, I won’t bother you,”_ ** _his friend_ _had_ _said while looking_ _him in the eyes_ _._

 **_“No. No, don’t worry about me. I’m alright,”_ ** _Roman had_ _tried to smile, though_ _he had  not been_ _convinced of his own words._

   Thinking back at his encounter with Erik made Roman think about the phone conversation they had had just before he had left earlier. His friend had needed a small pep talk as he was supposed to meet Matze tonight and wanted to bring the topic ‘Julian’ up. Roman dearly hoped that it would go well and that they would decide to talk to Julian too. This had lasted for too long now, they needed to talk it out and be all happy together.

   Without really knowing why, Roman's thoughts moved on to Charlotte. Roman had seen her during his last shift. He had seen her three times actually, the first one when he had arrived at the hospital, dropping by her room to see how she was doing, and she had been so appealed to finally have someone to talk to other than the nurses that he knew he had done the right thing. The second one had been together with Dr Weidenfeller. Roman remembered her sad eyes as they had announced to her that she would need to stay in the hospital for at least another week before being allowed out. After that, she would go back to a ‘normal’ life, a student life with a broken femur, which  would surely need a lot of adaptation. She would soon be allowed to follow a rehabilitation program and hopefully she would be alright again in approximately six to eight months. Charlotte had stayed silent the whole time, processing everything she had been told, swallowing her spit quite loudly when they told her how long this would take, and Roman knew she felt like crying. This year would certainly be a nightmare for her.

   Roman tried to not pity her too much, knowing that he would hate it if he was in her place, but he could not help but feel sorry for her. This was all so unfortunate, and he was pondering if she should better go back to France and be taken care of by her family. As much as the young physician tried to be with her, for her to not feel lonely, it was difficult as he was working. If she went back to France, she would at least not be on her own all day long. Charlotte needed people around her to help her physically as well as mentally. After what had happened to him with Melhei, Roman could perfectly understand the physical and mental pain her immobility caused. He had been in so much physical pain that standing up had seemed impossible for him for what had felt like forever, and mentally - seeing how fragile your body actually was and how it could fail you - definitely hurt as much. Of course, this feeling had only lasted less than half an hour as Yann had healed him, but he still understood how Charlotte was feeling.

   The third time he saw her was at the end of his shift and as she had been sleeping deeply, he had just quietly checked her vital signals before heading back home. Once there, he had finished packing his bag for the weekend and left after saying goodbye to Yann and asking him if he was sure that he did not want to come with him.

   And here he was now, more than three hours later, still on the road, muttering under his breath because of the lorry behind him which was far too close to him in Roman’s opinion. He was fairly certain that the lorry would crash into him if he needed to brake or slow down for whatever reasons. It usually made him angry to see people behaving as careless as that, and Roman definitely was not going to drive faster, so the lorry would better overtake him soon.

   Fortunately enough, the motorway exit to his parents’ house came soon enough and the lorry continued its way on the motorway, finally leaving him alone after more than half an hour glued to the back of his car.

   He pulled off in front of his childhood’s house less than ten minutes later, taking a moment to look at it, dozens of memories rushing back. It seemed as if it had only been yesterday that he had fallen and broke his wrist on the few stairs leading to the front door. Roman still remembered vividly when his little brother had cut himself badly on the forehead on exact the same stoned stairs. The young physician remembered how many times he had run through the aisle and then along the street to not miss his bus and be too late for school. He remembered so many happy things that it made him nostalgic of the times he had still lived there.

   It was hard to accept that he lived so far away now, four hour away from the house that had seen him grow up, that had seen him having so many first times, first steps, first words, first love, first kiss. So many things had happened here.

The young physician eventually got out of his car, grabbing his bag as he did so to quickly walk up the aisle. It always felt weird that he now had to knock on the door. He had lived here for so long, for eighteen years, for most of his life, and now he was waiting at the front door for someone to open him. _*_ ~~_(see notes at the end)_ ~~

   “ **Roman! My lovely baby you’re finally here** !” his mother exclaimed when she had opened the wooden door, taking him in her arms and holding him close for a long moment **. “Happy birthday! I missed you so much!”** she added once she pulled away, caressing his cheeks, before freezing when she saw the mark there. “ **What happened?”** she asked concerned, pointing at his jaw.

 **“Nothing to worry about, ma’, I just fell** **down** **the stairs,”** he lied, smiling as best as he could. He hated lying to his mom but he had no other choice right now, he could not tell her that a demon had attacked him and that his guardian angel had been too weak to heal him completely, could he? No, firstly because she would freak out so much that she would never let him go back and might force him into a mental institution, and secondly because he had promised Yann not to tell anything to anyone, and he was going to stick to his promise.

   His mother nodded, and Roman could see she was not completely convinced but luckily did not want to push him at the moment. She led him inside and a huge smile crossed his face when he entered the living room and saw many of his relatives reunited there. Nearly all of his family on his mother's side was here, his aunt and his uncle together with their partners, his grand-parents, as well as nearly all of his cousins except for his cousin Emilie, who was studying abroad in Italy. His father was the only child of his parents, therefore only Roman's grandparents on his paternal side had come. It touched him that they had all come here to celebrate with him because Roman didn't see them as often as he would love to because of his job at the hospital.

   He spend a lot of time greeting everyone, taking each of them in his arms for long seconds, taking extra long time with his five months pregnant cousin Thelma to caress her belly. She was barely younger than he was, and Roman could perfectly remember how much fun they had had together when they had been younger. Their parents used to joke about them being joined at the hips and they had been so close that she had been the first person to whom he had talked about his attraction to men.

 ** _“There is no problem whatsoever with you, Roman. You are who you are, and if you like_** ** _boys as much as girls_** **_then_** ** _so be it. No one has the right to judge you for that. Our God is a loving God and_** ** _He_** ** _is the only one who can judge you. But_** ** _He’s_** ** _also merciful and will see through your soul, and what_** ** _He_** ** _will find there is love and only love. He created us as we are and we should not hate ourselves for that. We are_** ** _His_** ** _children and we are who we are thanks to_** ** _Him_** ** _,”_** she had said to him one day, when he had voiced his worries about his faith to her. It had been a few weeks before coming out to his parents, and if he was honest to himself, she had been the one giving him the courage to do so.

   Roman tried his best to keep in touch with her, but it was a difficult task, as the both of them had difficult time tables. Thelma was a nurse and was working for a humanitarian program with her partner Noah, and they went on missions more often than not. For instance, they had gone to a small clinic near a village in Chile six months ago with nearly no possible way to communicate, and they had come back less than two weeks ago. From what Roman had understood, they were planning to go back there in about a month or so.

   After greeting everyone, they all sat around the table – _well there actually_ _were_ _two_ _because_ _they were too numerous_ \- and had a drink before dinner. From there on, the evening went smoothly; Roman was having fun with his family, joking with his cousins, listening to them when they talked about their lives and telling them about his own life, or more precisely about his work at the hospital. It was good to be there, to relax after the stressful day he had lived through, after nearly being killed and learning so many things he had never suspected that they  even existed. Spending time with his family made him forget about the constant knot in his stomach since Melheï had attacked him, and the young physician was thankful to have a break even if he knew that it would not last longer than a day, as he was driving back tomorrow afternoon. Knowing all of this made the moment even more enjoyable, and he knew he was literally glowing on the picture his mother insisted to take before blowing candles.

   This day had started randomly by an early shift at the hospital and at that time, Roman had not been really fond of the idea to come here and celebrate his birthday, but right now that he was surrounded by his family and finally felt relaxed, he did not regret at all. Today was his twenty-sixth birthday and while everyone was chewing on their piece of cake, Roman thought that if he had died a few days ago, it would have been utterly sad because he would not have had the chance to die peacefully because he would not have had the chance to see his family one last time.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *  
> Here is the explanation as to why Roman does not enter the house and wait for his mother to come open him. It was pointed out to me that for other people it might be confusing as it is his parents' home and that he lived there for a long time. Roman had lived there for eighteen years, but he is now twenty-six and it's been eight years that he left so, even if he still have the keys, it would be unnatural to me that h would do otherwise as he's no longer living here. I can't imagine it otherwise, I'm sorry if it confuses you, and I don't want to offend anyone or make anyone seems badly if they don't act like that. It's just my way of thinking and I totally accept the fact others might think and do the contrary.  
> Also in this passage if Roman says it's weird he has to knock, I might have expressed it wrongly, I meant that it was weird for him to no longer live here, even if he's been away for 8 years...  
> I don't know if it is any clearer to you now, I tried my best to explain it. :) and please, listen to me when I say that, I really don't want to offend anyone, I don't care about the way you get in your parents house, as long as it is ok for you and your family, then it is ok for me too... :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, feel free to give me your opinion on it, I would love it :) Whether it be positive or negative as long as it's constructive :)


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